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galacticlamps · 3 years ago

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Tagged by @the--highlanders ! Thanks!

How many works do you have on AO3?

What’s your total AO3 word count?

76,200

(oh what a nice even number - I should try to mess that up as soon as possible, shouldn’t I?)

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Aw man is this intentionally worded to be really hard to answer? I get that it says ‘written’ and not ‘posted’ but then what constitutes a ‘fandom?’ I definitely wrote fics for stuff I was interested in long before I even knew the word ‘fic’ - I did it throughout my childhood, and then in high school, and while I didn’t do it as much in college, it still happened from time to time. So a lot of the books/movies/tv shows/plays/musicals I wrote things for aren’t really fandoms, and frankly, I had to check my old folder just now to even remember some of them existed. I’ll just list the ones that I know for sure had fandoms, since that’s more fun (and embarrassing), right?

Obviously Doctor Who, classic and modern, Torchwood, Sherlock Holmes (ironically more of these seem to be about the books, but yes, I will admit, some for that tv show too), Les Mis, a couple different Marvel comics & movies, Good Omens, hell, I even found a Night Vale fic in there just now.

And I know there are other older things not even in that folder, some of which never made it to a computer at all, so if I had to ballpark a number I’d probably say around 25ish but really, who knows?

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Across the Gap

On the Spot

Expectations

Shards of Memories & Fragments of Glass

Itemized

(this was fun, I’d never noticed Ao3 even had a stats page until now lol)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to! Sometimes I take a long time to do so but for the most part, I usually get around to it. The rare exception would be if I first saw the comment when I was super busy/distracted and then felt like way too much time passed before I noticed it again, that it might be awkward if I said something at that point.

I do genuinely enjoy hearing what people think, but I’m also weirdly terrified of making anyone feel like they have to reply to my comments. I know that’s probably a little strange, but it’s actually a large part of why I made this Ao3 account in the first place - my original one, from high school, is followed by some long-time friends of mine who aren’t interested in this fandom, some of whom are involved in art & writing professionally. The thought of anyone like that reading something I wrote out of friendliness or even just curiosity and potentially having to pretend they liked it for the same reasons stressed me tf out, so I like having this virtually anonymous one because I can relax knowing that anyone who reads or interacts with something I wrote has probably done so only because they wanted to, rather than feeling obligated, and there’s no pressure on them to be nice to me about it if anything I write or post annoys them - so I really hope nobody who does just know me as an anonymous blog has ever worried about offending me by not replying to something, trust me, I’m perfectly happy with it!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t think I’ve really written any angsty endings? I guess the answer would have to be Reckless just because it involves the characters arguing about sad/weighty things and there isn’t really any solution to those issues - but even then I think I ended it with a kind of acceptance that stops it from really qualifying as angst? I also set it in the the same universe as other fics, so maybe that doesn’t even count as an ending? Am I that bad at ending things on angst? Lol

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Obviously none of the fics I’ve posted are crossovers but I’m trying to think now if any of my WIP’s are - I’ve definitely poached setting/premise ideas from other media, but in terms of actual crossovers . . . I’ve got a few cross-era or cross-Doctor, a few involving Torchwood, but that’s already the same universe, so the only thing that’d qualify as a true crossover would be some vague pieces of a fic where Jamie, Zoe, and Two end up on the Enterprise, since I think the 60s series of Star Trek and Dr Who feel kind of compatible, don’t they? In fact, aren’t there like officially licensed crossover comics or something? Or did I make that up? Idk, and the ideas are very loose, so it’s not much of a WIP either

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, never

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I’ve never written smut, but I’m wondering if it’s possible that could change soon. There’s a longish multi-chapter fic I’ve been working on for a frankly embarrassing amount of time, and the plot does call for a sex scene at one point towards the end, but I can’t seem to make up my mind on how - uh, I guess the word is explicit? - it should get. I know I could easily do a fade to black/implication thing, but it’s kind of a source of contention and anxiety for the characters, so to skip over writing the actual scene and just revisit them afterwards rings of “and they slept together and now everything’s fine!” which feels kinda cheap to me - in this context, anyway - and not the right payoff for a long fic that’s otherwise more of an interpersonal drama/slightly a period piece, if I had to place it in a genre. I feel like my aversion to actually writing the scene might just be prudishness I should get over, or maybe just self-doubt, because I know I’d rather have a well-written, funny, character-development-supporting sex scene than nothing at all, but since I’ve never had any interest in writing a scene like that before, I don’t know if I can do it well, and I also don’t want to ruin a fic I’m otherwise proud of by doing it badly... ugh I have to figure this out

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I seriously doubt it

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I mean, it’s gotta be Two & Jamie. I’ve shipped things before with varying levels of investment, but I’ve never been able to use the term ‘otp’ in a literal sense until I came across them, and now it’s already basically gone out of fashion, go figure!

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I’m not sure if I have one? My WIP doc is huge, but I don’t actually intend to get around to finishing everything in it, so I’d like to think that anything I’ve currently singled out to complete can actually get done.

That said, I do have a few AU’s that I don’t really plan to finish, but it might be cool if I could. Two of them are for all the main + some supporting characters of the Second Doctor’s era - one’s a modern day school teachers AU, and the other is a typical fantasy/fairy tale AU. Another is just Two/Jamie, based on Doctor Faustus (specifically the Marlowe play version) but right now there are two different versions of the ending coexisting in my head. I’ve written parts of scenes & some gen. backstory for all of those ideas, but I don’t know if I’ll ever try to finish them, or what form a finished product would even take - a series of one-shots set in the same universe? one long multi-chapter fic with some kind of overarching plot? And the amount of context/worldbuilding a big AU like these would require might not make them very appealing fics for people to read, so maybe it is better if I just keep them to myself, since in my head I already know what’s going on in those worlds lol.

What are your writing strengths?

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t had a creative writing class since middle school, and since then I’ve only ever shown creative writing to others in a fandom context, so it’s been a while since I’ve discussed it or gotten critical feedback. I suppose when I work in other arts or even academic writing contexts, people usually say I’m kind of insightful or at least detail oriented, which might just be another way of saying I overthink things, but I like to imagine I’m decent at finding little points of interest to expand upon.

What are your writing weaknesses?

If you’ve read this far I feel like you must know what I’m about to say: I do not know how to be concise.

Usually when I’m writing a fic, I put down the dialogue first on its own, leaving out the action of the scene and whatever plot/context led there, even if I’ve already figured all of that out. But then when I go to add those things in, they’re always longer than I wanted them to be. I don’t mind writing something long, but I don’t want my fics to be a slog to get through either, and there can be a point at which the stuff I’ve added for context overwhelms the stuff that I wanted the fic to be about in the first place, so it becomes a structural/proportion issue too. I haven’t completely given up on any fics because of this yet, but there’s one I’ve been struggling with for a couple months now - probably because I’m even second-guessing myself on which scenes need to be written out and which can just be referenced like a recap. Hopefully I figure that one out soon.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

((this is karma isn’t it? i posted a fic last week with two words of gaelic in it and was worried about that and now this is karma))

In general, I don’t want to do it. I feel like you’ve gotta have a really good grasp of a language to write dialogue & speech patterns for someone who’s a native speaker, and since I’m far from fluent in any language the characters I write for are, I wouldn’t feel confident writing any significant amount of dialogue in, say, Gaelic.

As a sidenote, though, I kinda love it when other people do it, particularly for Jamie. Irish (Gaeilge) and Scottish (Gàidhlig) are both languages I’ve wanted to learn for a long time, because my family’s fresh out of living speakers of either & I think that’s a shame, but I started with Irish and at the moment I’m still very much learning it. As different as they are, it still helps me understand parts of lyrics or texts that I come across in Gàidhlig fairly frequently, so when it comes up in a fic I get to feel like I’m being responsible and practicing, and it’s great when I can actually understand what’s being said.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I’m gonna go with Harry Potter even though that’s probably not a perfectly accurate answer - it’s almost certainly the first thing that has a fandom that I ever wrote for, but it was in a notebook when I was a kid and never something that I even typed on a computer, much less posted online or shared with other members of a fandom. But even then, I’m sure it wasn’t the first pre-existing fictional universe I ever set an original story in, because I did that a lot when I was a kid, it’s just hard to remember those clearly or on any kind of timeline.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

I’m very partial to Across the Gap, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that ranked first on the kudos thing above - but I’ve also got a soft spot for So Merrily We’ll Sing. It’s so self-indulgent it feels silly saying ‘it was so easy to write!’ but I guess having a fic that’s already just 100% headcaonons and fluff tied together by a song you really love does prevent it from being much of a labor (I also managed to refrain from making that one unnecessarily long, so that’s another win there)

tagging @terryfphanatics and anyone else who wants to do it - sorry I’m bad at remembering whose tumblr goes with whose Ao3 account, but I really would be interested to read this if anyone else feels like answering them!

#oh boy that was long #sorry #also sorry if the 13 is really big for some reason #i dont know how it got that way so i dont know how to change it #it doesnt look like that when i edit the post only when i save it #not fic but fic talk

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kaitycole · 4 years ago

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Black Dahila

Summary: Liam and Drake finally learn what happened when Constantine confronted Eleanor and Jackson about their affair.

Word Count: 3328

Pairings: Constantine x Eleanor, Jackson x Eleanor, Jackson x Bianca

Warnings: Mentions of adultery, murder, illegitimate children

Song Choice: n/a

Part 19 of WP. To catch up, read here.

It’s not until he goes to sit down and catches a glare from Bastien that it finally hits Jackson why his former mentee is here and he makes sure to grab Luke’s arm when he goes to sit down.

Liam sits down in the arm chair that is close to the sliding glass doors he assumes leads to the backyard. He scrunches up his brows when notices Jackson’s hesitant to sit down. It has been three years since he took the throne and the weight of his title still hasn’t fully clicked with him.

“Oh no, please sit. I’m not here as King, this is your home after all.”

Jackson nods, slightly embarrassed before he lets go of Luke who sits on the left end of the couch closest to Liam and Jackson sits in his usual chair, one that is across from Liam.

“It seems a lot has changed in Cordonia.” He lets out a nervous chuckle, the atmosphere starts to feel heavy, like all the weight was resting on his shoulders.

“Leo abdicated for love, truly pulling an Edward VIII. Olivia had a lot to say about that.”

“How is Olivia?”

“She told me not to even bother to come here.” “Sounds like her. And Lythikos?” “She rules with a silver dagger, the people love it, the suitors not so much.” Jackson lets out a laugh and Liam feels himself untense for the first time since they pulled back in front of the ranch. It startles him at first, the fact that he could feel almost comfortable with the one person he wanted to set on fire. But it is truly rare that he gets a moment to just chat with someone.

“The Beaumont brothers, how are they? Bertrand married to some insufferable noble woman yet?”

Liam and Bastien share a brief exchange before the corners of Liam’s lips threatens to twitch into a smirk. “You’d honestly be surprised at who he married. He even has a son.”

“Poor woman.” Jackson jokes which gets Bastien to crack a smile.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Liam stands up, holding up his ringing phone before walking out the glass doors behind him.

“I don’t suppose we could share a drink and talk about the old days, could we?”

“I am on the clock.” Bastien continues to look straight ahead, trying to simply just avoid his old mentor. His first concern is Liam, next would Drake, then maybe once they were back in Cordonia could he worry about his own feelings on the matter.

To say Bastien is hurt would be a gross understatement, he is angry, pissed the fuck off and devasted that the man who taught him what he knew didn’t feel the need to clue him in on what happened. The fact that he had spent most of his life raising Drake and Savannah like his own because of how much he owned Jackson all while pushing down the grief and guilt he felt over their alleged deaths.

“How is that if Liam isn’t here on King’s business?”

He finally lets his eyes flick over to the man he used to look up to, keeping his face emotionless. “My job is to protect the King regardless of the business matter. You should know that or have you forgotten the duties you had sworn to uphold?”

“That was Drake, he’s almost here.” Liam walks back into the house, unintentionally interrupting their conversations. Bastien just nods, his glance refocusing on the wall in front of him, eyes scanning across the family photos lined up on the mantle.

There was no doubt in his mind that it was Eleanor’s idea to have so many photographs taken, she was like that when she married Constantine. Even before Liam was born, she had pictures taken of them with Leo, of Leo through the years and once Liam was born, even more were taken. She made sure Olivia was included in the family pictures they took, even if the official royal family photo didn’t have her in it, she still kept the ones with her in her personal photo albums. Bastien makes a mental note to have the servants look for them when he returns so that Liam will have them if he wants to see them.

* * “Luke, why don’t you go bring the cattle back in?”

Drake arrived just moments ago, taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch to Luke, meaning he’s closest to Jackson. Liam asked to hear Jackson’s version of Eleanor’s pregnancy which prompted Jackson to basically ask Luke to leave.

“This involves me too. I’m staying.”

“We can talk about this later, Luke.”

The young man simply crosses his arms, shaking his head. He wasn’t going anywhere, after everything he’s learned over such a short amount of time, he honestly didn’t trust his dad to tell him the same details he gave his older brothers.

“I’m old enough to know. You will literally be talking about me, I’m staying.”

“I really don’t see any problem with Luke being present. He must have questions just like the rest of us.” Liam’s regal tone comes out, while Drake is used to it, the other Walkers look at him amazed. A small smile curls the left side of Jackson’s lips, he could see so much of Eleanor in him.

* * With shaking hands, she pulls the tests out of her pocket and hands them to him; she had taken four of them. He looks at them, unsure of how to act and he feels himself unable to breathe. The unsureness of what this meant left him with a mixture of fear and unease.

“Please say something.” She pleas, tears swelling in her eyes.

“Congratulations.”

She reaches out for his arm, the plastic tests clattering against the floor as she drops them, throwing herself into his chest, “it’s yours.”

Jackson stumbles backwards, the reality crashes into him like a strong wave, leaving him breathless and fearful for another. The question on his tongue leaves a bitter taste, knowing that the words will hurt her, wondering if she’ll react the same way Bianca did when he asked her a very similar question.

“Are you sure?”

The Queen pulls away, her expression resembling a wounded puppy whose owner just pushed it away. She sucks in her bottom lip, eyes filling with even bigger tears as she bites down on her quivering lip. She lets out a shaky breath, nodding repeatedly before she turns and walks away, leaving him and the pregnancy tests behind her.

Liam stands up, anger radiating off of him which Drake quickly picks up on, standing up as well. “I’m sorry, did you really question my mother?”

“Liam…” Drake steps forwards, hands reaching out, trying to calm his best friend.

“How dare you? How fucking dare you act as though she was just some common mistress.”

Drake’s hands are on Liam’s shoulders, pushing him backwards even though he knows Liam can easily push him out of the way. He quickly looks towards Bastien who is watching, but not moving, honestly, he’d be completely fine if Liam beat Jackson to a pulp. He was completely surprised at Drake’s behavior, growing up he would throw a right hook without hesitation and for a lot less than everything Jackson’s done over the years.

“I know what it seems, but you have to…”

“I don’t have to do shit.” Liam pushes Drake off of him, sitting back down in his chair. “She risked her life, her family, everything for you and you dared to treat her that way.”

The room quiets, no one saying anything or even moving, the tension can easily be felt. Liam feels torn, torn between saying fuck it and leaving, returning to Cordonia as if none of this ever happened, but also wanting to know more about the events that led to his mother’s behavior. Drake is torn between his dad and his best friend and Jackson is torn between doing the right thing and telling the events for what they are or saving face with at least Luke.

“Would you like to call it a day, Sir?” Bastien takes a step closer to Liam.

“No,” he shakes his head, “I can’t continue to drag this or the trip out.”

* * Eleanor’s stomach drops, it isn’t uncommon for Constantine to have a guardsman summon her to his office, but something feels off. The last time she had even spoken to her husband was roughly two weeks ago, the day that he picked up on her sour candy craving. She has managed to stay holed up in her suite which wasn’t too bad seeing how her morning sickness was horrific this time around.

Jackson’s nerves twist even tighter when he sees Eleanor walking towards him, seemingly going in the same direction. He had been at home when Novak came to get him, telling him the King needed to see him immediately. For the last several days he’s tried to see the Queen, to apologize, but based off the maid gossip she had locked herself in the Queen’s suite, not even letting Liam in to see her. He tries to make eye contact with her, wants to try to give her a soft, comforting smile, but her eyes stay locked on the tips of her shoes.

Novak is standing outside the King’s office, opening the door when they both get close enough, a small bow for Eleanor and Jackson suddenly understands why he’s been called when Novak’s gaze avoids his.

The scene in the office isn’t reassuring for either Eleanor or Jackson, Constantine is standing with his back to the door and Timothy is standing to the right side of the King’s desk. Jackson can see something on the desk but he can’t make out what it is.

He turns around, sitting slightly on the edge of his desk, looking at both of them, a stone-cold expression in his eyes. Constantine stares at his wife, trying to or more like hoping that she will give him some reason to forgive her. He wants to be wrong, he wants things to go the way that they should. He wants to be told that he’s just been overthinking and connecting invisible dots, but when all signs point one way, it’s hard to go towards the other.

“How long have you been two sneaking around?” “Constantine, I…”

“I think it’s important to remind you that I already know the answers to the questions I plan on asking, there’s really no reason to lie at this point.” His words are often chilling, but the coldness of his words sinks deep into their bones, a shiver creeps down their spines.

“Over a year.” Eleanor wraps her arms around herself, trying to calm down her racing heart that’s lodging its way in her throat.

“And this?” He holds up the pregnancy tests, tossing them to the ground between them. The thin white plastic tests clatter against the floor, bouncing a bit on impact. It had been reported to him that a maid found a few tests in the guardsman suite not to mention there were some found in the Queen’s bathroom.

“Three or so months.”

Constantine’s stomach drops, but he doesn’t weaver from his stoic nature. He couldn’t exactly calculate when she could’ve gotten pregnant, but he could be for sure that she was in no way carrying an heir. But even with this reveal, he had already known that, just not really wanting to accept it. Accept the fact that he’ll most likely go down in history as the king that lost two wives.

“But there’s a chan—”

The King starts laughing, amazed at just how far his wife is willing to go to try to save her lover. She has to know that he wouldn’t have called them both there if he didn’t have all the evidence that he needed.

“These prove that to be a lie.” He grabs the thick envelope off the desk, walking closer to Eleanor, who tightens her grip around herself. “Or do you need a reminder?”

She lets out a gasp at the explicit nature of the photographs of her and Jackson, face turning red from embarrassment that her husband had seen them. It’s the first time since the pair had returned from Valtoria that she felt shameful of her actions, curious as to how he actually felt at her betrayal but scared of what his plan was.

“What’s going to happen?”

Constantine walks to his desk, sitting in the thick leather chair before swirling it around to face them, a sinister look on his face. He wants to laugh, the fact his wife cheated on him with a man that hasn’t even tried to take some of the blame baffled him. Even when Liana had left, when he knew he had nothing to do with her choice, he still carried the burden of blame because to him, a real man wouldn’t be able to tolerate the woman he loves name being tarnish in any way.

“Despite the obviousness of the paternity, I had an appointment made for you under Ellie Rhys, your two highest maids will help you disguise yourself.”

Eleanor just nods, what more can she do, she’s already done enough. Jackson still hasn’t said anything, if he was honest, he hasn’t thought much of the fact Eleanor had told him she was pregnant. He doesn’t want to think that it could be his because it means that everything will come to the surface and he isn’t ready for that. He’s not ready to own up to what he’s done, for all the damage that will be the result of his selfish actions.

** The week’s wait is dreadful for Eleanor, especially on top of her hellish morning sickness and practically nonexistent energy level. Towards the end of the week she’s surprised to see Constantine slip into her room, asking how she’s feeling. But when she tries to reach out, to get him to really look at her, he excuses himself, his only warmth being given to the unborn child.

She’s summoned to his office just a couple days later, this time without Jackson which has her completely worried, but he assures her that he just wanted to speak with her privately first. He has Timothy hand her the sealed envelope from the doctor’s office, telling her it was addressed to her not him so he didn’t open it.

He doesn’t have to ask for her the results, he can read it on her face and while he had a strong feeling it wasn’t his, a teeny piece of him had thought it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. She looks up at him, tears in her eyes, but receives no sympathy from him, his expression as icy as ever. He waves Timothy who goes to the door and lets Jackson into the office.

“You two are to leave the country, actually this side of the Atlantic. What’s that things Americans wanted?” Constantine snaps his fingers as if that gesture would trigger his memory, “ah yes, a white picket fence. Surely you two could have that ideal now.”

She sniffs, wiping a few tears from her cheeks. “What am I going to tell Liam?” “Nothing, he’ll think you died, a pretty standard death of a noble when there’s a coup.”

“A coup?” Jackson finally speaks up, much to the royal couple’s surprise.

“Ah, yes.” Constantine taps his chin before looking at Timothy, “care to explain.” “Yes, Sir.” Timothy nods before turning back to Eleanor and Jackson, proceeding to go into detail about how things will happen. That they’ve been investigating a radical group called ‘la Force de Pert’ and staging a coup, under their name, could help them take action against them.

He tells them that an announcement will be made that says the Queen was taken hostage by the group and Jackson made the heroic decision to go rescue her without backup. That night after the media left, the two of them would be escorted to a private airport where they’d be taken somewhere in America, free to live their lives however they please.

Timothy makes sure to emphasis what the King has just said, that they are never to return back to Cordonia or anywhere in Europe for that matter. That the fifty states that America has to offer should be big enough for them, even the US territories were up for grabs, but once they landed, they weren’t to cross any ocean for any reason. They weren’t to talk about their prior stations, anything related to Cordonia, the two of them were to simply fall off the face of the earth.

“You expect me to just leave Liam? Leave him here with you?” Her voice breaks, she tries to understand what is being said but the only thing she can think of is her son. “I won’t, I’m taking him with me.”

Constantine chuckles, pushing himself out of the chair, slowly striding towards Eleanor, his hand cupping her chin, forcing her to look at him. “It’s almost cute how someone in your position thinks you can tell me how things are going to happen.”

“Please, Constantine.” Her lip starts to quiver, but he tightens his grip on her face.

“You have no room to make demands.” He drops her face, turning to go back to his desk.

“I’ll just come back and take him! You will NOT keep him from me!”

“If you step foot on this side of the Atlantic,” he stops, turning around on his heel, “I will have him killed.”

There’s a heavy silence that drops over the room, it’s almost smothering as Eleanor tries to catch her breath. Tears cover her cheeks, shaking her head, trying to understand his callousness, how he could threaten his own flesh and blood.

“You wouldn’t! He’s a prince of this country!”

“He is the SPARE!” His voice booms throughout the room, causing her to flinch, his ice-cold tone ripping through her.

“Constan—” Jackson stops when he sees the bewildered expression on the King’s face.

“You may be on personal terms with the Queen, but I assure you that we are not.” He sits back down behind his desk, “I should hope you also know the same sentiment goes for your children, if you try to return.”

Jackson just nods and Eleanor looks at him horrified, confused as to how he could willingly agree to this, agree to give up his children so easily.

“Don’t look so down Ellie, it’s honorable for a guardsman to die a hero, isn’t that right, Jackson?”

“I can’t just leave my son, Constantine. You can’t ask me to do that!” Eleanor cries out, unable to stop herself from falling to her knees.

“You’re right, I’m not asking, I’m telling.” He leans back in his chair, “but are you even thinking about Liam when you shout things like that?”

She looks up at him, tears still blurring her vision, a broken expression on her face, “of course I am.”

“Tsk.” Constantine shakes his head, “think about it. If you came back for him, you’d basically be telling him that your bastard baby is more important than him. If Liam really mattered to you, you wouldn’t have put yourself in this situation to begin with, you didn’t think that I’d find out and just let it continue in the palace, did you?”

“What about Drake and Savannah?” Jackson quickly asks.

“Ah, yes. Bianca will receive a sizable compensation for her loss so they will be taken care of. They will be more than welcomed to stay at the cabin, as long as they don’t threaten Liam’s reputation.”

“Excuse me?”

“Although he is the spare, Liam has an important role to fulfill as prince. It doesn’t look good for people of his station to be involved with those with yours. Just look at the predicament at hand.”

#choices #the royal romance #witness protection #witness protection au fic #trr liam rys #trr drake walker #trr constantine rys #trr jackson walker #trr eleanor rys #oc luke walker

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prettyflyshyguy · 4 years ago

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Teehee what if I was to drop most of the C Virus AU Fanfic CH3 right now at 12:28AM... Unless.

Unedited/draft Ch1, Ch2 first half, Ch2 second half, for your perusal, and here’s a very unedited first chunk of CH3 that isn’t quite finished because I have work tomorrow but it involves interaction with Ada and I’m sitting here all :)))))))))) while writing so I hope you enjoy!

Perched atop a building, he scanned the area below. As he was making his way towards the area where Simmons should be, he had heard gunfire. Despite his grizzly appearance, if someone was in trouble he could still find a way to help, surely. A street facing door was suddenly kicked open and a figure stumbled out, with a crossbow of all things in their hands.

‘No. Way.’ he thought as he carefully descended from the roof, wanting to get a clearer look.

The survivor fired a shot at something inside the building, before ducking back. A small explosion occurred and a BOW, screaming and flailing stumbled out. It was more grotesque than the other C-Virus monstrosities he’d seen so far, and it looked like it had a chainsaw for an arm. It screamed in agony while the survivor readied another shot. Carefully maneuvering himself behind some rubble, the light from another small explosion from the crossbow’s bolt illuminated the survivors face for a brief moment, fully confirming his suspicions.

It was Ada, for sure. At least he thought so. She was wearing the same clothes as when he and Helena saw her in the catacombs. The mystery was still there however; which one was the real Ada Wong? Was there even a singular one? Was she just switching outfits and motives in some twisted game?

Flicking a glance back in her direction, she was staring down at the body of the BOW lying smoking on the floor, inert. He shuffled, ever so carefully, avoiding making any noise so he could tactically reposition to try and make contact. He stiffened as he felt the vibration of rubble shift under his foot, a small amount of dirt and rocks crumbling.

“Now what do we have here.”

Hoping if he kept still enough, she’d think no one was there, he held his breath. His heart rate increased as he heard the soft clack of her boots on the concrete approaching at a gentle pace, a bolt being loaded. No time to think.

Placing his hands on the ground, crouching back, he launched himself over the rubble, ignoring the sound of a bolt whizzing just past his ear. Spotting a broken window one floor up a building, he leapt into it and backed up against the wall panting, just as another bolt narrowly missed its mark.

“Honey I didn’t have the time to deal with this overly enthusiastic fellow,”

He heard the sound of another bolt being loaded.

“So how about you help a girl out and make this quick and easy for both of us.”

The ‘thwip’ of a bolt pierced the air and one landed on the other side of the room. It bounced off the wall, fell to the floor and rolled slowly towards him. The head of the bolt looked large and blunt and had a small blinking red LED. He didn’t need to guess what it meant as the rate increased, and the bolt exploded in a flash of light and smoke.

Ada stared at the cloud billowing out of the window, preparing another round for good measure. Her eyes narrowed as a few seconds passed, with no movement. She raised her weapon and aimed at where the window was, but it was barely visible now as the smoke had spread.

Suddenly the creature leapt through the smoke with frightening speed, grabbing her arm and pushing it away as she shot the loaded bolt in a random direction. It ripped the crossbow out of her arm and backed up as she spun around to face it, reaching for her holster.

Feeling nothing, her eyes widened as she noticed it was holding her handgun and crossbow. It tossed the bow aside gently, and with elegance she’d never seen from a BOW removed the magazine from the gun and dropped both parts either side of it. It maintained eye contact with her the entire time, its eyes were piercing and displayed a terrifying degree of human intelligence.

Covering up the fear in her head, she smiled.

“I can’t say I’ve ever met a man who’s tried this hard to get my attention.”

She started to pace slowly around as she drew a knife from her belt, the creature mimicked her pace as they circled.

It began to raise its arms, she dove in with the knife and test jabbed to check its reflexes. It was fast, faster than her.

Her expression turned stern. It backed up a few paces, eyes focused on her as she furiously walked closer brandishing the knife.

“I’m a very, busy, woman.” she grunted while slashing. “And I don’t, have the time, for stalkers.”

Whatever the hell she was dealing with, it clearly knew the basics of CQC. Dancing and ducking around her every swing and jab, although it made no attempt to hit her back. Suddenly its eyes flicked to something behind her, a distraction and an opening. She thrusted the knife forward but something grabbed her by the ankle and almost toppled her, one hand slamming into the ground, the other with the knife at the ready. Flicking her head to the source, the charred and burnt BOW with the chainsaw arm simply refused to die, it and had a vice grip around her right ankle. The sound of bone and flesh grinding louder and louder as it lifted its twisted machination of a chainsaw arm up as the teeth and bone started spinning again.

She looked back to the creature in front of her only to find it gone, suddenly turning back to the one grabbing her ankle, her eyes widened as she saw the second creature holding the chainsaw-arm back, with one foot on the BOW’s back. The charred living corpse let out a chilling howl as the creature pinning it down pulled its arm further back, dislocating the mutated tendons and bone, ripping muscle. The bone-tooth blade stopped spinning and the vice grip loosened. Ada sprung back up and turned around to face the creature that by all intends, spared her. It was panting while staring at the charred corpse, seemingly ensuring it was truly dead this time. She took the opportunity and sprung towards it, holding the knife in both hands.

At almost the last second before the knife hit its chest it flung one arm up to push hers back, and grabbed one of her wrists with its other, stopping her completely in her tracks. She grimaced and stared up at its face, meeting its eyes. There was almost a pleading look to them. Its grip on her wrist was firm, but not painful, she kept the knife pointed at its chest but shifted her weight so not as much force was pushing her into its arms. Despite the overcast sky, a small break in the clouds shifted and moonlight illuminated the scene and the creature's face. That’s when she noticed its unmistakable hair, the soft blue eyes. The fact it didn’t even lay a scratch on her.

“...Leon?”

His face softened and the concern was replaced with the beginnings of a warm smile, he loosened his grip on her arms and started to relax-

Her knee struck his stomach with frightening force, he stumbled back with a grunt.

“That’s for almost breaking my crossbow.”

He smiled slightly as he cocked his head to one side, probably deserved that. He gently collected her sidearm and magazine, grateful to find out despite his hands shifting he was still able to comfortably reload the gun with ease. She collected her crossbow, a pleased smile graced her face as she examined it and found it was not damaged.

“So, cat got your tongue?” her playful tone hid a mixture of contradicting emotions.

She turned back to Leon who had a hand extended, holding her sidearm out. Taking it back, she took a moment to actually look at him. He always ‘stood tall’ around her, she noted he was even taller now and actually towered over her with an air of confidence after managing to disarm her so carefully. It was hard to maintain a certain level of composure, he had hardly changed and the thought was warm but looking at what had happened was painful. His eyes were exactly the same but she could barely return his gaze without her composure breaking.

He shuffled slightly, then opened his mouth. Hoping something normal sounding would come out.

“Aa…”

The more he tried to force it, the more it hurt his throat. His shoulders shrunk inwards slightly as he turned his head to face away from her, the embarrassment and shame of the situation returning. He didn’t want to face her like this, he was regretting even trying to talk to h-

“Did Simmons do this?”

Giving up the vocal option, he shook his head. He shifted towards a wall, leaning comfortably facing her, with a flick of the wrist he pointed a finger briefly towards her, then folded his arms.

“... It was the bitch in the blue dress, wasn’t it.”

He tilted his head to one side slightly, his expression stern.

“After everything I’ve seen, it’d be pretty cold of me to just say ‘it’s complicated’ don’t you think?” she joked with a forced smile.

No one was laughing. Leon had a very high level of tolerance for her usual manner of speaking, cryptic and tangential, not today however. His entire life changed the day they met in Racoon City but this blows that experience well out of the water.

“I don’t know who she is, but Simmons made her using the C-Virus. Starting off as a bootleg version of me but it seems like she’s got big plans of her own now.”

His stare was piercing.

“I’m sorry.”

His face softened as he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“Simmons became… A little too attached to me. I wasn’t interested in playing by his rules, let’s just say he took it a little personally when I didn’t reciprocate his feelings.”

She paced around the courtyard as she spoke.

“I don’t know how he did it, but his obsession resulted in him using the C-Virus to create a very imperfect clone of me. A bootleg Ada Wong if you will.”

Leon snorted in amusement, but he maintained his stance. Closely watching as she stood still and looked back at him.

“I’m not working for Simmons. We’re on the same side, I promise.”

Then who do you work for?

The question echoed in his mind. The one time Ada talks with him at length, he can barely say her name. He looked away, frustrated and ashamed of the circumstance. Hearing her walk closer he turned slightly only to feel the warmth of her hand brush up against his cheek, his eyes flicking towards it and back to her as they widened slightly. His arms fell to his side as her other hand gently rested on his arm. Despite the transformation he still felt the temperature of his face increase, not expecting anyone he knew would even be able to accept what happened to him and be so gentle, especially not Ada.

“I came here to clean up the mess Simmons started but now… Now it’s personal.”

#Resident Evil 6 #C Virus AU #Leon Kennedy #Ada Wong #Resident Evil #C Virus AU Fanfic #MY IDIOT SELF WRITING THIS: hehehehehe :^)#Gets to the bit where Ada is affectionate: OH FUCK OH SHIT OH GOD OH NO AUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHH #I'd die if I wrote actual romance I fucking crumble and fall appart hguarihuihuarehgr #I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED WRITING IT #sorry for the tease ending I really need to go to bed but the next bit sort of is Leon being embarrassed #Ada reinforcing she's gonna fuck Fake Ada Up #and her tipping off Leon about Simmons and Helena meeting up nearby and that he should hurry

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readingsbylibramc · 4 years ago

Text

birth chart reading for @makingboyscry

hello! welcome to your reading. I’m gonna give you a quick overview of what I’m going to analyze about your natal chart. feel free to ask me anything if something isn’t clear, of course. you’ll find out your dominants’ influence on your persona, your physical appearance, impression on others and the way you approach the world; your ego, identity, the real you; your reactions, your desires, inner emotions; your way of expressing your feelings, your mind and ideas; your desires and approach to love; your energy tank, instincts and temperament; in-depth analysis of each house with their rulers and analysis of heavy aspects; love life + soulmates/karmic partners interpretation; your relationship with your friends; your family life; your approach to career and work in general + possible jobs suggestion; your style, fashion sense analysis; life purpose and past life description; basic transits’ analysis to describe your current mood and, last but not least, your secret skills, how to make the most out of your soul and manifest what you desire based on your birth chart.

🦋 chart shape, dominants

your chart is a seesaw shape. your life focuses on different ideals and interests, often constrasting between each other. from one side, this gives you the ability to be adaptable and find solutions easily. on the other hand, you may struggle with balance; for example, you might find yourself dedicating your life to your relationships, neglecting your ego or viceversa. you need to learn how to harmonize these energies.

your dominant planets are venus, the sun and the moon. you're surely a very charming person, you have a very bright aura to you and you try to make everyone you meet comfortable. you may have frequent mood swings and you may be a bit sensitive, but you're also very imaginative and empathetic.

your dominant sign is cancer. you seek emotional security in life. you need to feel grounded, you're most likely extremely cautious about the decisions you make. you're also very sensitive and compassionate of others, even though you could get slightly passive from time to time.

your dominant element is water. you're very intuitive and empathetic, you care a lot about others, and you may seem like a healer to people you know. in fact, you always try to help them if you can, almost in a therapeutic way. you're also very spiritual, and you're attracted to anything related to discovering your higher self and soul purpose.

🌎 ascendant in sagittarius, 25° / 3rd decan ruled by jupiter and the sun

you see the world as an adventure. you have a knack for philosophy, and your favourite is most probably ‘you only live once’. you tame dying before making the amount of experiences you want to have in your life, hence you could even be impulsive sometimes. you’re the type to always be up to crack a joke or anything that can make you and others smile, yet when someone gets against you, it’s over for them. you have quite of a sharp tongue, you’re pretty blunt and straight-forward. in fact, you may often get in troubles due to your impulsiveness, which may be misunderstood. you have an incredible charm to you; it’s not like taurus’ or libra’s, those are more related to physical traits. sagittarius people, on the other hand, are surely very talented at something; maybe, at school you were one of the best students, and everyone recognized it and appreciated you for that; people understand your potential, and you may often receive compliments for your skills. basically, your personality is charismatic. physically, sagittarius is all about abundance, hence you may have trouble losing weight. you could have big bones, or at least something bigger on your body that doesn’t make you look like a victoria’s secret’s model. you’re more on the thick side, in fact you probably have a pear/hourglass body shape, with wider hips and/or thick thighs and lower body in general. you could also have wide shoulders, and something big and memorable on your face as well. maybe you have a very distinctive nose, or perhaps your eyes are almond-shaped. your forehead and lips could be pretty wide as well. I’ve also noticed that sagittarius peers have a very lively sparkle in their eyes, even though they may be very dark. it’s like having two/three tiny diamonds at the centre of each of your eyes. last but not least, you may have big, watery eyes with long eyelashes and overall round features. for instance, you may have a round face or plump lips.

sagittarius ascendant square pisces moon: you may have troubles understanding others’ real feelings for you. you may feel as if everyone hates you, like everyone is talking behind your back when it’s the opposite. the moon being in pisces doens’t help either, as this aspect enhances its trust issues even more. you’re particularly sensitive about others’ view and opinion of you, you may get deeply hurt when people criticize you. you could have the tendency to act differently than you usually do, in order to preserve your feelings. this is obviously a toxic behaviour, that fills you up with your own stress and doubles it. due to that, you may become very moody and nervous, ending up hurting others yourself. or maybe, it’s the other way around; your feelings are so overwhelming that you can’t hide them, and that could put you in embarrassing, unpleasant situations. you may show all of your emotions on your face, ready to be read. yet, with your scorpio moon you don’t want to be read, therefore you end up feeling ashamed of your own emotions. the way to cope with this placement is finding someone similiar to you; someone who’s trust-worthy, and very sensitive and empathetic too. someone who’d never judge you for you think or say, and that would always help you becoming the best version of yourself. someone that understands you, without having to explain all of your behaviours and habits.

🌞 sun in cancer, 28° / 3rd decan ruled by the moon and neptune

this is the most sensitive and dreamiest cancer decan. deep down, you’re actually very vulnerable and sensitive. you may be a crybaby, as crying is a way to vent your emotions. you may even overreact, and be considered too dramatic. you’re extremely moody; you could be all happy and relaxed with your friends, then suddenly you get sad, or even angry. it’s hard to deal with this, especially because your emotions are quite intense. this could make you argue a lot with your peers. even though it takes you a while to find someone willing to stay, when that moment finally comes you’ll embody cancer’s best trait: that is, you’ll become a ‘mother’ to your friends, lover etc. you have a very nurturing soul, you have a knack for affection and care, and you could even get kind of clingy, even though you may feel limitated to give your love to someone else. cancer is a cardinal sign, hence you may be the one to take initiative, yet you do it undirectly. you’re probably the passive-aggressive type, even though this may be mitigated by your dramatic and impulsive sagittarius rising. you’re most likely also quite patient, even though you don’t forgive easily. once someone tries to take advantage of you, it’s over for them.

cancer sun conjunct cancer mars: with this placement, you may be way more straight-forward than the typical cancer. you are very impulsive and honest above all, you say things as they are. you don't get hurt easily, you're able to be very brave when you want to, and even if you do get emotionally hurt, you know how to stand up for yourself again. you strive to achieve your goals and make your dreams come true, you're an hard-worker. some may call you impatient, and you may actually be, but in reality you just can't wait for things to happen. for example, let's suppose you're going to the mall to buy the playstation you always wanted. you'd start only thinking and talking about that playstation until you actually get it in your hands. you get easily excited. also, this is another placement that indicates that is hard not to notice you. you have a very strong charisma that makes others stare. you strive to be the number #1 at whatever you do, you're a serious competitor and you'd do anything to win and achieve your goals.

🌙 moon in pisces, 16° / 2nd decan ruled by neptune and the moon

hands down my favourite moon sign! you're extremely empathetic and sensitive, you care a lot about others and you treat others' problems as if they were yours, you get totally immersed in them. you have quite a vivid imagination, you're able to idealize and picture anything you want. while this placement gives you an incredible amount of creativity, it can also make you uncomfortable. in fact, you may actually find yourself imagining every detail of every situation, even the worst ones. let's suppose you hear of a rape at the news; you literally start imagining the scene detail by detail, and it makes you extremely uncomfortable. actually, it literally ruins your mood, as it's as if you actually lived that scene. going back to the creativity matter, you have the soul of an artist. you have very enhanced emotions, and you're able to express them through artistic outlets. you could be amazing at writing poetry, books, art, music... also, your particular empathy of human's intellect can also make you an amazing psychologist or actress, as you're able to understand others' feelings and make them your own. you're extremely spiritual, and if you don't feel like that, you just have yet to have your spiritual awakening. you may be able to talk to spirits, for example, or perhaps you have very meaningful dreams. or maybe, you could literally predict the future through them. you're also most probably an avid daydreamer, you tend to get distracted easily because you're too busy thinking about random scenarios in your head. seriously, you could even make a movie out of them. you're also an hopeless romantic, and you dream of finding not just your spouse, but your literal soulmate. to make it simple, you want all of your daydreams to become reality.

pisces moon square sagittarius pluto: your emotions are so intense that they almost scare those around you. in fact, you're prone to accentuated mood swings; when you're happy, you start smiling and laughing joyfully. when you're sad, you're the type to cry, scream, even throw up in some cases. that's how far you go with your emotions. maybe, you also feel repressed to express your feelings exactly for this reason. you probably also have a conservative/possessive mother (or just any member of your family), with whom you don't feel at ease expressing your emotions. or maybe, your mother was absent throughout your life. on the other hand, you can understand others' feelings, but be careful not to use it to manipulate others. you could also be very paranoid, and might develop addictions and anxiety disorders, especially with your gemini moon. if you don't feel comfortable speaking to someone you know and there's something you need to talk about, I'd suggest you to do it with a psychologist. don't be afraid to face your emotions, you'll only be able to control them if you get know them.

🗣 mercury in cancer, 10° / 2nd decan ruled by the moon and pluto

you don't really rely on logic. you're very emotionally intelligent, and you take in consideration others' feelings when you speak. even though you may be impulsive and blunt sometimes, you don't do it with malice at all. you may actually feel guilty after you realize that you've hurt someone. you may be sort of manipulative, as you're very observant of others' behaviours. because of that, you may be extremely good at interacting with others, since you know how to speak to people when you don't let your impulsiveness get over you. you know how to persuade others, even though you may not even realize it. if you manage to balance your rising sign and your mercury, I think it would give you great social skills. you'd be able to stand up for yourself, while also being mindful and conscious of the effect of your words on others. you may get defensive quite easily, and because of that you may become a bit secretive. that's because, deep down, you feel the need to be understood to fully convey and express your emotions. you want to feel at home with your interlocutor, otherwise you'll just be awkward. on the other hand, you have a nice sense of humor, you're able to light up the room with your jokes. your voice may be nasal, but pretty much very gentle as well.

❤️ venus in leo, 9° / 1st decan ruled by the sun

with a leo venus you're very picky, as you have high expectations for your future partner. you always try to be at your best state, and you want those who surround you to be perfect too. it's hard for you to fall for someone, as you take everything in consideration: personality, physical appearance, fashion sense... it may look like it is too much, but once you find the right one that truly satisfies your standards, you're in for a long ride. you'll want to travel, live your life in the best way possible with the person you love. you look at them as if they were the brighest star in the sky, and you want to be seen like this as well. you may even be a bit clingy, but your partner needs to be aware of that. they can't repress your need for affection. you see love as a way to revive your inner child, you feel younger when you're in love. even though you want someone fun and outgoing, you also need someone ambitious, hard-working and generally serious when it comes to committing. there's no room in your life for flaky people.

leo venus opposite aquarius neptune: you probably dream of a love like those you hear about in fairytales; you're not only looking for a partner, you literally want a princess, who's willing to give their all to you. you find yourself daydreaming often about love, and it may also be your source of inspiration for creativity and art in general. probably, you may idealize people too much; that is, you may create a version of others that only exists in your head. hence, once you get to know someone better, they turn out to be the exact opposite of what you thought. this causes you to be sort of naive when it comes to relationships, so pay extra attention to this problem now that you're aware of it.

☄️ mars in cancer, 22° / 3rd decan ruled by the moon and neptune

in life, you have the need of feeling grounded and stable. you want to feel secure, and that makes you think deeply about your decisions, you don’t rush them. you’re not much impulsive, you think deeply about what to do and / or say, you are very cautious. this sense of being careful makes you quite indecisive, especially since you also have your sun in the sign of cancer, this energy is even stronger. you may change your mind often, or perhaps it takes you a lot to finally make a decision because you kept changing your mind. you tend to try and be collected whenever someone is getting on your nerves, but your feelings are extremely intense to totally bottle them up. you either get slightly passive-aggressive, and hence you could get very sarcastic and call them out indirectly, or perhaps you just lose your temper and face them angrily. possibly, you could even be the type to bottle up all of your feelings, until you explode all of a sudden. that can also make you more furious than normal, as you have all these repressed, strong feelings inside of you that were screaming to get out. you’re also extremely protective of your loved ones, especially of your family.

🏡 houses

your 1st house is in sagittarius, with also your black moon lilith placed there. your relationship with your image could be quite complicated; lilith here points out that you’re definitely attractive. even if not conventionally, you’re extremely charming and people find themselves being attracted to you. your lilith being here also gives you a very bold, strong presence, and hence you may be even intimidating. yet, you’re also extremely magnetic and charismatic, maybe even sexy. I assume that you struggle to fully embrace your potential, though. especially during your early years, you had a fluctuating self-esteem. you used to find yourself weird and ugly, you didn’t love yourself. luckily, if you work hard on your mentality you'll start being way more optimistic, and as a result you'll be more confident in yourself as well.

your 2nd house is in aquarius, with also neptune and uranus sitting in this house together. your relationship with money may not be totally stable; you may get distracted easily, and you could lose your money around. you could be quite messy, overall, or in general, this is usually a placement that indicates sudden money loss. this placement also confirms that your self-esteem isn’t stable either; you could be quite insecure, and you may idealize a lot the way you look. for example, you could think that you have an ugly nose when it’s actually the opposite. same goes for your belongings; you may think that you have saved loads of money, you spend them, and then you realize you didn’t really have much. regarding your self-esteem, your imagination and your creativity could surely make you feel better. you may have an artistic hobby, such as acting, drawing, etc. that could earn you compliments and praise, and hence it increases your sense of worth. you could also increase your self-esteem by taking pictures or videos of yourself, for instance.

your 3rd house is in the sign of pisces, with also your moon being in this house. when it comes to speech, you’re most likely more introspective. you may not be much talkative, and most of the time you keep your ideas and thoughts to yourself, but actually it's hard for you to hide them. you may be secretive, but you're easy to read. you learn the best when you’re close to creativity or imagination, you’re very intuitive and hence it's easier for you to learn new topics. while you're very empathetic and you're able to properly convey your thoughts and feelings in your speech, you may also come off as sensitive or even insecure. you may have a quiet voice, and hence you could come off as shy. since neptune, the ruler of thishouse, is in the 2nd house, I assume that the best way to deal with this issue is gaining more self-esteem. you may be introverted due to your insecurity, and hence dealing with it will be crucial for you to solve this karmic lesson.

your 4th house is in aries. while outside you may appear as very polite, when you feel comfortable you actually become way more fiery. you’re very impulsive in your home environment, you could have actually been some sort of warrior. maybe you used to argue a lot with your parents, perhaps because they were too overprotective. it wasn’t totally peaceful, there were a few events that made you hold a grudge, maybe even subconsciously. it might be regarding a family member, or even a childhood mate. during your childhood, you weren’t much sad, though. it could be that your home environment was a bit intense at times, but it was nothing too serious; you made a lot of experiences during your childhood, perhaps you used to travel a lot. you might have lived in a big house, or perhaps it’s your family that is quite large. above all, this placement gives you an inner philosophy that makes you very wise and mature, it’s an amazing placement for a teacer of any kind. you could often find yourself thinking positively about your childhood or family, and you find comfort in other people.

your 5th house is in taurus, with also saturn and jupiter sitting here in this house. you are a very creative, artistic person. you’re able to relax by watching netflix, eating, writing, painting… anything that can be done at home. you’re not the type to hang out too often or party all night, you’re more of a homebody. you could also love sleeping in, just being able to stay in bed all day wearing comfy clothes is a vacation for you. yet, due to saturn’s presence here, it may take you a while to fully embrace your creativity. in fact, when you were younger you probably felt restricted to express yourself. you were more of a logical person, and your hard-working nature didn’t allow you to properly nurture your hobbies. perhaps, it took you a while to experience romance, or even friendships. you were kind of lonely, even though it wasn’t totally your fault, you were just too tied to your responsibilities. you probably had to grow up sooner than others kids, you seemed much more serious and mature than them. but remember, while this placement gives you a strong sense of duty, it’s also important to nurture your creativity, especially since your placements indicate that you have a very strong imagination. luckily, since jupiter is also in your house you can get lots of fortune from romance and creativity, even though you may work extra hard to achieve this success, especially if you're planning to pursue a creative career.

your 6th house is in gemini. in your daily routine, especially at work, you have to communicate a lot. you come in contact with lots of people, or maybe you write stuff like blogs or books. generally, you have a very hectic schedule, as you have different hobbies and appointments that you can’t abandon. your ideal career has to include something that allows you to express your personal taste, ideas and interests. in this way, it won’t feel too heavy to you, and you’ll find pleasure in working. you probably thrive from being efficient not just at work, but also in your daily routine; you probably like having a schedule, a routine of any kind (like a diet or a skincare routine for example). the ruler of the 6th house is in the 7th house: this placement confirms that you would do amazing at a career that involves creativity and pleasure. you could be a writer, a singer, an actress, a photographer… in general, anything that allows you to be creative using your words. you may also have to interact with other people for your work, and you could possibly find friends, a partner or maybe even a wife thanks to your job.

your 7th house is in gemini, with also your sun, mercury and mars sitting there. in a partner, you seek someone intelligent that is able to keep up with your rhythm. you don’t have time to nurture someone, you want them to fully understand you. in fact, you may be more attracted to older partners, as they’re supposed to be more mature. I don’t see many issues arising in your marriage life, it will probably be very peaceful, but it may take you a while to find someone you like. you’re a picky person when it comes to love, you want someone hard-working and responsible with a big brain, yet they should also be quite outgoing and funny. you need mental stimulation, someone that is a constant adventure for you and that is worth exploring. you may meet your future spouse at work, according to your chart. otherwise, you could meet them in a bank, in a restaurant, at a concert, at the mall… also, they could help you gaining more confidence in yourself. in fact, you gain pleasure from having social interactions, you may be a people pleaser and you're overall a very romantic individual.

your 8th house is in leo. you have the potential to become a very successful individual, with a great amount of charisma. yet, since the 8th house is related to pluto, the malefic planet of transformation, there are some hardships to this placement. in fact, you may have the tendency to look down on people that aren’t as open-minded as you are. I have the same placement, so I understand that it’s not easy at all, but you should learn to accept respectful people’s opinions. if you do that, you’ll finally be able to glow brightly. venus is also placed in this house: combined with leo being in the cusp, you have extremely high standards. you nay find it hard finding people worthy of being your lovers or friends, but once you do fall for someone, you love unconditionally. you may often feel misunderstood, as you seek intense, life-changing bonds that are almost like those you see in movies. because of that, people may often let you down. with the ruler of the 8th house in the 7th house, you’re interested in anything that is considered taboo: astrology, horror, tarots, spirits, sex etc. you’re most likely not afraid to speak about them and showing your passions, your fantasies to those around you. also, your transformations in your life will most likely happen through your relationships. you might have had different ideals but then someone showed up in your life and completely changed your point of view.

your 9th house is in virgo. you have a practical approach to philosophy and your thoughts in general. that is, you’re able to grasp a lot of information that makes you think more on your identity. you’re interested in psychology, and that explains why you decided to get your chart read after all. you were a perfectionist at school, and you probably had amazing grades. you are very justice-driven, you like learning new stuff and being the #1 at pretty much everything you care about. yet, you could be quite bossy at times, as you could come off as a bit too arrogant but you're just very dedicated. the ruler of the 9th house is in the 7th house: you could attract people in your life that are foreign, or perhaps open-minded people that are able to speak more than one language or are bicultural. this placement also indicates that you'll most likely get to marry a foreign individual, you may meet them abroad or perhaps they'll have a different cultural background from yours.

your 10th house is in libra. you have an eye for aesthetics, and you want to have a reputation for looking classy and mannered. basically a gentleman, but that knows how to stand up for himself. in your ideal career you need something that makes you express your need for beauty, possibly even justice. you may have a passion for poetry and literature in general, or maybe you could be particularly skilled at fashion. you have a natural talent to match colours with undertones, body shapes, vibes etc., and you could make this particular ability of yours a job. you’re also a charismatic, strong-willed speaker, hence you could also do well as a lawyer, a politician, an activist etc. the moon here also indicates that you may pursue a career that allows you to express your emotions in some way, or perhaps you could pursue the dream career of your childhood. the ruler of the 10th house is in the 8th house: again, your ideal career involves arts and aesthetics. you could become an artist, a writer, a poet, an actress, an interior designer, a stylist… this type of things. also, your career and indipendence are most likely to boost your self-esteem. in addition, you may also be able to get very well-paid.

your 11th house is in scorpio. you are extremely picky with your friends. you have a few trust issues, probably caused by your karmic issues again, that make you secretive around your friends. you may close yourself in your shell, or maybe you actually know a lot of people, yet you only consider a few of them your friends. most of the time, you may also befriend people that try to take advantage of you. or perhaps, since there’s a possibility that you understand that, you could be the one who leads the group and acts quite bossy. this is something that gets naturally better with time; actually, your friends will be of great help for you to grow up. you may have big dreams for your future, yet you may feel intimidated as they’re very intense, and hence hard to make come true. you need to pay your karmic debts in order to finally feel comfortable with others and have the motivation to achieve your long-term goals.

your 12th house is in sagittarius, with also pluto sitting in this house. you’re particularly interested in religion and higher beliefs, hence meditation would be effective for you. yet, you need to get enough sleep, or you could not be able to fully embrace the spirituality of this placement. you may also be able to have prophetic dreams, or at least they have a strong moral beyond them. venus in this house indicates that you may daydream about the perfect romance. you have strong ideals, you're a very fair person and you expect a lot from people, but you may sometimes be let down from others because of these high standards of yours. with the ruler of the 12th house in the 5th house, you most probably prefer being alone in your free time. you may be introverted, and hence you're surely not the type to attend parties or clubs. you may also have spiritual hobbies, such as yoga, meditation, astrology, tarots, religion, etc.

❤️ love life, soulmates

in love, you attract cancer, taurus, virgo, gemini, leo, aquarius and aries placements. your future spouse will most probably have aquarius and taurus placements, hence they’ll be very smart, patient and confident, but also very intelligent and a bit moody. it may be love at first sight, and you may find them very attractive. you could meet them at work or most certainly abroad, there are many indicators in your chart of a foreign spouse. perhaps you could meet them during a vacation, or maybe in any kind of context where you need to speak another language.

👶🏻 family life

your mother is a very fiery, impulsive person, with a short-temper. she could have even been quite violent with you during your childhood, and she might have a few childish behaviours. deep down, she’s actually kind of insecure with her role as a mother. she may have aries, sagittarius, leo, libra or scorpio placements in her chart. your father, on the other hand, is more submissive. he’s a peaceful person, even though he most probably has a passive-aggressive behaviour. you could actually have a better relationship with him rather than with your mother, or at least he understands your needs better. he may have libra, scorpio or taurus placements in his chart. if you have siblings, they most probably have cancer, pisces or aquarius placements in their chart. you may have an amazing relationship with them, you may understand each other very deeply and your bond could be quite emotional.

📊 career

you could do well at a variety of jobs to be honest! with your gemini in the 6th house you could actually work in different fields before sticking to one career, hence you’re pretty experienced. I certainly see you being successful in your career, you will most likely work alone and you'll most likely be a boss. you're very hard-working, so I can see you having your own business for example. otherwise, you may also do well in an aesthetic field, or even more practical jobs like lawyer, judge, possibly also a therapist or psychologist. and again, you may work abroad, so maybe as a translator, as a teacher etc.

👕 fashion sense, style analysis

keyword for your wardrobe: black. every leo venus loves black, it's probably my favorite love story. after all, it's such a versatile color! it can be both badass and classy, how can I blame you. you may also have a thing for anything that looks luxury and high quality; you probably enjoy wearing designer brands, especially in your belts and bags. you may also like wearing fitted clothes, even just simple skinny jeans or tight tops. aside from black, you could as well use white and bold colours like gold, hot pink etc. also, you may as well be into pastel colors, and you could like following fashion trends.

👁 past life, life purpose

in your past life, the focus was on yourself. maybe, you had troubles with self-esteem and identity in general. you had to work hard and finally understand who you were to fulfill your past life purpose. hence, this lifetime your focus will be on the bonds you create with others. even though at first you might feel almost scared to the idea of marriage, especially having mars in the 7th house, this lifetime you're here to develop this matter. after all, you may despise love for your troubled past. with your north node in the 7th house, you're naturally lucky in love. there's nothing to be afraid of, you only need to take small steps and open your heart to someone, putting your worries and insecurities aside.

🤔 major transits analysis / february 12

last year was probably very rough for you. at least, you’re finally discovering the truth about who you are; you’re finally learning how to love yourself for who you are, without having to change. by the next year, you should be able to feel much more comfortable and confident. even though you may still face some hardships, don’t give up. you’ll come out of it as a stronger person. also, transit uranus in your 4th house is currently squaring your venus in the 7th house. there may be unfortunate and unpredictable events in your family environment, or maybe even regarding your physical house or privacy so beware of that.

🧿 manifest what you want, secret skills

with your water dominance, you probably have a 6th sense. you’re able to manifest what you want if you subconsciously predict it, even though it may be hard. you’d have to get in touch with your higher self to do so, and hence I would suggest you to light up some candles and meditate for a bit before manifesting, in this way it will be way more effective. you may manifest something while daydreaming, for example. or perhaps, you can also try listening to your own affirmations while you sleep, as you won’t be consciously aware of that. it’s probably the most effective way.

and this is the end!! thank you again for booking a reading, let me know if you have any questions :) - libramc xx

#astrology

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hookedontaronfics · 5 years ago

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First Contact series Part 2

Title: First Contact - Part 2 Find Part 1 HERE Rating: T Pairing: Taron x OC Warnings: Some light cursing and alcohol use A/N: The second installment in the First Contact series takes our three best friends on a fun Saturday night on the town and a surprise second encounter with Taron. Some more cute, fluffy Taron. The series will eventually involve more mature themes as it develops, so be warned! I hope you enjoy! x

Opening Scene. Int. A cheery maisonette in Muswell Hill, London. Saturday evening. Three roommates are sitting in the reception room, the evening sun pouring through the window, casting a warm glow. Two roommates are idly chatting and watching the telly, while the third roommate furiously types away -

“Hey!” Jules’ voice interrupted my thoughts, mid-type. “No working! It’s a Saturday. We’re going to go out and have fun!” she said.

“I’m not working!” I insisted, quickly hitting the save button and closing my laptop.

“Yeah right, it’s all you do,” Mary agreed.

“Well, I’ve just landed this position and I want to show I can excel at it,” I said, feeling the need to defend myself. But I truly hadn’t been working on a script, at least not for work.

“And I actually like my job, unlike you lot,” I added cheekily as Jules tossed a couch pillow at me.

“Look, we all know how brillo you are! They wouldn’t have promoted you if they didn’t think it too,” she smiled. “But you also need to have some fun once in a while.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said with a grin. “So what did you have in mind?”

“Well, Jules and I were thinking of checking out this really fun place on Kingsland High Street …” Mary started.

“Yeah, it’s a karaoke bar and the hosts for the evening are drag queens!” Jules added with an excited squeal. “How fun will that be?”

“Uhh, you guys know I don’t sing!” I protested.

“Well you can just be a killjoy, but you’re still coming with us,” Jules replied, taking my laptop and shoving it under the couch cushion for good measure.

“Come on, then,” Mary grinned, pulling me to my feet and dragging me along to my room so I could start getting ready. After some deliberation I finally chose to wear a simple black dress over a black-and-white checkered button-down shirt. Minimalist was the way to go so I wouldn’t grab anyone’s attention, lest they try to pull me up on stage with them. I kept my makeup neutral except for a bright pink lippy and tousled my hair before deeming myself “night-on-the-town” worthy.

My friends, it would turn out, decided to make this process a lot more time-consuming. So with time to kill, I dug my laptop out from under the couch cushion, disturbing Tim, Mary’s cat, who had been stretched out and sleeping. I apologized by giving him an extra scratch behind the ears, to which he simply meowed at me indignantly and then returned to his nap.

“Suit yourself, Tim,” I giggled, perching on the ottoman and opening my laptop again. I’d set my desktop background as one of the pictures from my Tesco run-in with Taron two months ago, and it never failed to make me smile.

Of course my friends and I had gone over every single detail of the interaction, in great length and with a lot of wine. I’d still not been able to share the experience online, partly because I didn’t want crazier fans then me to feel the need to stalk him in places like the supermarket. Taron had been kind and friendly, of course, but at the heart of it, he was just going about his life like any of us might. Being famous wasn’t an invitation to intrude upon his life in that way.

Still, as I looked at the photo, I couldn’t help but daydream a little about what could have been. Could a chance, simple encounter really turn into more?

“That’s what you’re wearing?” Jules asked, breaking into my reverie, standing in front of me with her hands on her hips. “You’ll totally blend in… with the furniture!”

“That’s the point, Jules. I’m not changing, so can we just get this over with already?” I whined slightly.

“You will have fun, so help me!” Jules replied as Mary sashayed into the room as well, playfully tossing her hair about. Both of my roommates were in bright colorful dresses; I looked like the drab au pair next to them, but I didn’t mind. We were in high spirits as we locked up our flat and made our way to the tube, my friends awkwardly tottering on their heels and me making fun of them for their impractical footwear.

The transit to Kingsland High was uneventful, and soon we were standing before the neon sign of the Karaoke Hole. A few people were standing outside, smoking or just talking, and we could hear the strains of music and laughter filtering outside.

We had to get our ID’s checked at the front before walking into the neon-lit bar, immediately besieged by the amount of glitter in the room. And feathers. And neon. And basically every wild, outrageous piece of clothing someone could adorn their body with. I suddenly felt very much out of place and as conspicuous as I had been trying not to be.

We quickly ordered drinks, giggling over the names of the various cocktails in the LGBTQ+ friendly venue. Oh, this could be a fun night after all. The booths were all full, and we hadn’t made a booking, so I was truly grateful I’d chosen a pair of sensible flats for the standing-room night. The karaoke was already in full swing, and the hosts were engaging and welcoming to everyone there.

Jules, Mary and I were caught up in the joy of it, cheering right along with everyone for each singer or group that braved the stage. But there was no way I was getting up on that stage, even with my roomies begging me to go with them. I waved and cheered as loud as anyone as Mary and Jules stepped up to the stage, microphones in hand, looking every bit the stars I knew my roomies to be as they launched into a flamboyantly off-key version of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

I stood around, taking in the packed crowd, men and women of all stripes and colors here just to have a good time. It genuinely filled me with happiness to see everyone getting along, like we’d all been invited to the same exclusive party.

When my friends returned to me, breathless and giggling, I was sure to congratulate them profusely, overblowing it on purpose until Mary told me good-naturedly to shut up. I snickered and finished my drink as the first notes of a song I instantly recognized blared out, and my eyes instantly snapped to the stage in hope. But the person about to sing George Michael’s “Faith” wasn’t who I hoped it to be, even though I knew it was completely silly of me to think I’d have a second chance to meet Taron. Still, a girl could hope, right?

Embarrassed by my private disappointment, I mumbled something to Jules and Mary about needing another drink, and politely pushed my way between sweaty glittering bodies to the bar. I had to fairly clamber onto a stool and lean over the bartop to yell my order to the bartender over the enthusiastic rendition coming from the speakers.

“I could sing it better,” someone to my right said, and I nearly fell off the stool the second I recognized that accent.

“Excuse me?” I laughed, spinning around to face the person who was most certainly the object of my fangirl dreams.

“That’s my song. I always sing it,” Taron smirked lightly. If he recognized me at all (which I mean, how could he?), he didn’t let on.

“What are you gonna do, go up there and show him up?” I teased as the bartender placed my cocktail in front of me. I took a couple sips and savored it for a moment, also secretly checking out Taron over the rim of the glass in the process.

“Ahh, haven’t had enough drinks yet. And I’m not an arse,” he grinned, waving his empty bottle at the bartender to indicate he’d like another.

“This time it’s on me,” I said, tossing a couple bills on the bartop as the bartender handed Taron another beer. His green eyes looked sweetly baffled at me below the brim of the hat he was wearing, and my heart sank just a tiny bit. So no, he didn’t remember who I was, I thought to myself.

“Well, enjoy your night,” I said, smiling and trying to pass it off as me just being an overly generous person. I hopped off the stool and turned to go back to my friends, but he reached over and tapped me on the arm, leaning in close to me to speak as the bar volume suddenly jumped. I realized I could feel his breath on my skin, and I tried not to gasp.

“I didn’t buy you a coffee as a quid pro quo, Jessica,” he said, and I didn’t even correct him on my name as my heart nearly stopped beating and reality slammed back into me. He actually remembered me, I thought stupidly, shocked into speechlessness for a moment. I suddenly felt my world tilt just a little, and everyone felt way too close. The music was too loud, and the lights were far too bright. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the proximity of Taron, or maybe just my general anxiety, but I suddenly felt like I had no air to breathe. Taron said something, but I couldn’t make out the words.

“I…I’ll be right back,” I managed to stammer, before making a mad dash for the door, weaving between people until I could push the door open and nearly fell flat on my face tripping over the steps on the way to the sidewalk. I rushed past some people smoking near the entrance, who glanced at me and then went back to their conversation, before leaning against a light pole and sucking in huge breaths of air, trying to calm myself down.

Angry at myself and embarrassed over my panic didn’t even remotely begin to describe how I felt at that moment, moving through emotions too fast to even process them. And nothing had even happened, not really, other then Taron having an unusually impeccable memory. I really needed to get a grip on myself. I pulled my phone out of my purse, which had been slung around my body, ready to text Jules and Mary to come out and rescue me as I surely couldn’t face Taron again, when the door swung open and he made a beeline over to me.

“Are you okay?” he asked gently, keeping his distance until he was sure I could handle it.

“Just peachy,” I breathed, making him tilt his head again.

“Is that a particular phrase said in the States?” he asked, willing to distract me from whatever had caused my panic.

“Uh, yeah, I suppose so,” I said, even managing to laugh a little. “It’s painful how American I still am, isn’t it? I’ve been living here a year already!”

“It’s not so bad. Where you’re from is an important part of who you are,” he said sweetly, stepping a bit closer as he could see me relaxing. “I’d never want to take that away from someone.”

“You’re really … real, aren’t you, Taron Egerton?” I laughed softly, knowing that probably didn’t make any sense to him, but he stayed quiet, allowing me time to elaborate. “I mean, just as sweet and kind in person as everyone thinks you are. That’s kind of rare.”

“Thank you, I… That’s generous of you,” he said, closing his eyes and nodding his head in that way he did when he was humbled by a compliment.

“Well, I mean it. First you save my brown sauce, then you rescue me from panicking over nothing. I’m beginning to rack up quite a tab,” I joked.

“Hmmm, that’s a bit of a problem, innit?” he said, slowly smirking at me again. “I suppose you could repay it by having you and your mates join me and my mates at our booth. We’ve plenty of room,” he said, giving me his most winsome gaze, his eyes passing over me head to toe. I was grateful for the shadows cast by the street light, as I’m sure I was a bright shade of scarlet.

“Can’t say no to that, now can I?” I smiled, biting my lip slightly as he reached out and offered his hand to me in a gesture of support. I slipped my hand in his, noting that he threaded his fingers with mine as he led me back inside.

We quickly found Jules and Mary dancing together, clearly a bit drunk, and who hadn’t even noticed I’d been missing. Great friends, those, I thought cheekily. When Jules saw Taron and me holding hands, she made a big show of it, pointing to our hands and then giving me a cheesy thumbs up. I would have felt embarrassed but Taron didn’t give me the chance, leading the three of us to the booth he and his friends had commandeered. He introduced us to a few people whose names I’d definitely forget later, then returned to the bar to replace our abandoned drinks.

When he’d returned, he slid into the booth next to me, so close that his thigh was directly against mine. And it was warm, very warm. I was distracted by the sensation for a moment, then chided myself and blushed, as if my thoughts had been posted on an electronic sign above my head for all to read. Still, those kinds of thoughts weren’t going to help me survive the night sitting next to Taron, so I tried my best to be chill, starting with downing my cocktail way too fast.

Jules and Mary had no problem joining the conversation with Taron’s friends, and I did my best to chime in when I could, getting a few laughs out of the table. More drinks and badly sung songs ensued until Taron drummed his hands on the table. “Only one person hasn’t yet gone up on stage,” he said, turning to me as his friends all “ooohh’d” at me.

“Oh no, no no no. I don’t sing,” I replied, trying to kibosh that whole idea before it started.

“Oh come on, love, it can’t be that bad,” Taron chuckled, clearly feeling buzzed himself at this point. He took his hat off and plopped it on my head. “You’ll be a star,” he grinned, dragging out the word.

“I can’t go up there by myself,” I replied, desperately trying to come up with some reason other than that I was massively afraid to stand in front of all those people. “I have laryngitis!” I said, unable to keep a straight face at that as everyone else cracked up. I clearly needed to work on my lying game.

“Here, I’ll bargain with you,” Taron said, putting an arm around my shoulders lazily. “You and me. We’ll go up there together, and we’ll just have some fun, yeah? Forget everyone else in the room. I’ve got you,” he said, his eyes slightly glittering in the dark of the bar. I knew he’d said all of this just for my benefit, and it was getting difficult to turn him down. I looked over at Mary and Jules, both of whom knew about my anxiety. But they were both nodding their heads, trying to encourage me to overcome it.

So I agreed, against my better judgment. I quickly finished my cocktail, hoping that the liquid courage would kick in, and let Taron drag me up to the stage. We debated over a song for a little bit while waiting our turn, landing on something I actually knew by heart, so at least I wouldn’t be tripping over the words and embarrassing myself further.

When our names were announced and we hopped up on the stage, our group of friends burst into ridiculous cheers, which made me blush some more and nearly want to bolt, but Taron was still holding my hand and it anchored me a bit. “Don’t look out there. Forget about them. Just focus on me,” he whispered, so I took a deep breath and did my best to take his advice. It wasn’t hard to focus on Taron, who looked almost rugged with his black blazer and stubble, his hair a bit flattened down from the hat that I was now wearing. It somehow made him look even more adorable, but I don’t think he could have looked anything less to me.

Our music started and Taron instantly lit up, the performer in him living for moments like these. My only hope was simply to survive. We’d chosen Elton John’s duet with Kiki Dee, the ever-catchy “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Taron, bless his soul, did everything he could to get me to loosen up, and it somehow worked. I wasn’t glued to the monitor screen because I knew the words, and eventually even I was dancing a little bit with him, clearly being outshone but at least looking like I wasn’t totally out of my element. By the end of the song, I was beyond grateful to leave the stage, but also proud of myself for actually going through with it.

Taron grabbed me around my middle and cutely hugged me, picking me up off my feet and swinging me around slightly in his excitement over what we’d just done. “That was so good! I had no idea you had pipes on you like that!” he grinned, knocking his hat askew on my head a bit.

“I never said I can’t sing, only that I don’t,” I laughed, caught up in his excitement and the effects of alcohol.

“Well you really should more often,” he smiled, pulling me close so that he could fix the hat before dropping his hands down to my shoulders and staring at me for one awkward moment, as if he wanted to put them elsewhere but decided against it. “You have really beautiful eyes, has anyone told you that?” he asked.

“Not...not really, thank you,” I said, totally stunned as we stood there, the flow of the crowd around us totally forgotten. For that moment, it was just Taron and me.

But then the moment passed, and whatever he had thought to say, or do, he decided against.

I felt a pinprick of disappointment as he led me back to the table, ordering another round of shots for the table as everyone greeted me back with congratulations and praise that I had a half-decent voice. I gave them all smiles and tried to entertain Mary and Jules’ texts about how cute we had looked up on the stage together.

We all chatted some more and took the most ridiculous pictures with each other and the night wore on, Taron at times resting a hand on my knee, or even leaning his head against my shoulder, but making no further moves and I half-wondered if this was just how he was when he’d drunk far too much.

I got up to go to the bathroom, badly needing to pee at that point, and stewing on what Taron’s actions could possibly mean. It couldn’t be because he was attracted to me, I decided, especially as I’d chosen the most boring outfit in the world. At least his hat did something for my overall aesthetic, I thought, looking at myself in the mirror. My eyeliner had smudged a bit but didn’t look overall bad. I sighed and pushed my way into a stall, realizing once I sat down that I’d totally left my phone on the table. Jules was notorious for hacking my social media with stupid posts, especially when she was drunk.

Once I’d washed up and returned to the table, it hit me that I was absolutely knackered. I nearly stumbled, into Taron no less, trying to get back into the booth. “Guys, I so need to call it a night,” I said, unable to stop the yawn that escaped. Jules and Mary had been whispering and giggling together, but had stopped when I’d returned. If I hadn’t been so drunk myself, I would have been suspicious.

“You’re sure you need to go, darling?” Taron asked me, looking like he needed to find a place to pass out himself.

“Mmm yeah and I think you should too,” I smiled, trying to hand him his hat back, but he shook his head.

“Keep it, it’s a consolation prize,” he said, winking at me and making my insides melt. If there’s one thing I can tell you, Taron Egerton could stop traffic with that wink of his.

“You’re absolutely ridiculous,” I giggled, stuffing my phone back in my purse. “Thank you for the fun night. It was really, really great.” And you’re bloody gorgeous, I thought drunkenly, glad those words didn’t leave my mouth.

“The pleasure has been all mine,” Taron smiled, nodding to the rest of his group as Jules and Mary and I managed to extricate ourselves from the booth without breaking an ankle. We all took our good-byes, making empty promises to hang out again some time, and Taron escorted us outside and helped flag down a taxi for us. He was a gentleman through and through. He offered hugs to the three of us, maybe hugging onto me a little longer than was necessary, and made sure we were safely in the cab and on our way before returning to the bar. My last image of him was his hand raised in a half-wave, his crooked smile fading into the darkness.

By the time we arrived back at our flat, my head was absolutely pounding. Mary shook me to rouse me from my stupor, half-slumped against the cab door and probably not remotely attractive at all. The street light outside hurt my eyes, and I was starting to get grumpy that I wasn’t already safely tucked in my bed.

“You always do this! I hate your grump stage, it’s such a bummer!” Jules complained, tearing off her dress and dumping it in our main room.

Mary shook her head at our roommate’s exhibitionist streak and quickly took me by the shoulders and escorted me to our shared bathroom. “Just take a bath and relax and you’ll feel better, promise,” she smiled, as if she’d done this many times before.

“Okay, mom,” I playfully whined, dumping my purse on the counter, my phone falling out onto the floor. I bent over to pick it up, swearing slightly and hoping I hadn’t cracked the screen, which had lit up showing my notifications. My eyes went wide as I noticed a text and I screamed, bringing Jules running, crowding into the small bathroom with us.

“WHAT IS THIS?” I yelled, shoving the phone in their faces. There, clearly visible on the screen, was a text message reading <Had a lovely night with you. Until next time, -T.>

“Oh, that,” Jules said offhandedly, as she and Mary exchanged glances with each other.

“Well, when you went to the bathroom, …” Mary began.

“I knew you wouldn’t do it yourself!” Jules interjected.

Mary squealed at that. “So when are you going to text him back?” she asked.

“Not with both of you breathing down my neck!” I laughed in a dazed manner, shooing them both out of the bathroom. “I love you guys,” I said, giving them the biggest smile.

“Love you back,” Mary said, making a heart with her hands while Jules just blew me a kiss, still only dressed in her skivvies.

I closed the door and sank down to the floor, staring at the text until my phone screen went blank again. I took a deep sigh and opened the message back up, my fingers hovering over the keys for a moment. <I had the best time. Hope you got home safe. -J> I set my phone aside and started the water, deciding on a quick shower instead of a bath. Once I was clean and feeling slightly better, I brushed my teeth, swallowed a couple painkillers, put on my jammies and nestled under the covers. I peeked at my phone again, half-afraid that there wouldn’t be a text back or it’d turn out to be a wrong number, even if that didn’t make sense as he’d texted me first.

My fears were proven false, though, as I had another text waiting for me. I opened it nervously. <You really think I’m bloody gorgeous?> I stared for a moment at the text, before throwing my head back and having to laugh. I definitely couldn’t trust myself when I was drunk, that’s for certain.

<I’ll ask sober me in the morning> I sent back with a winky face emoji before setting my phone aside for the night. My head was still pounding and I badly needed to sleep, no matter how tempting it would be to text Taron all hours of the night.

From first contact to the second, I’d been given hope. Not that I was the perfect girl for Taron, or for anyone for that matter. But he’d seen me enough to care, maybe even to like me. And that was a future I’d be all too happy to wake up to the next morning.

Keep reading - Part 3

#taron imagine #taron egerton #taron x reader #taron egerton fanfiction #taron egerton imagine

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captain-aralias · 5 years ago

Text

Worse ways of writing a sex scene - Hang the Moon deleted scenes

as usual, after writing something, i have a doc with a bunch of stuff that i wrote and then deleted because i thought it wasn’t working, but i liked it enough that i thought... maybe i will regret my decision to delete this and want to either put it back extant or refer back to it.

it’s a random collection of stuff - not the best ideas i had but didn’t use unfortunately. because to end up in the doc, i have to have written whatever it is and remembered to copy and paste it, rather than just deleting it.

as usual - i thought i might as well put it on the internet as not, although the real version is better.

from the recently completed ‘hang the moon’ / ‘the sky isn’t black anymore’ pair - apparently i have:

- one real deleted scene, and some tiny snatches of conversation from ‘hang the moon’ (and that’s it, really - apart from some scenes i thought i would delete, but then put back in)

- some baz thoughts, and three-ish attempts at writing baz trying to explain gay sex to simon. which i clearly absolutely hated writing.

when baz says “It’s just – the Simon in my imagination knew how to do this too. Without prompting” that’s my literal pain on the page.

----

Hang the Moon:

Chapter 2 -

(barely a real deleted scene as it still basically happens this way - but i show it to you because you can see baz doesn’t start the chapter in jeans in this draft - i went back and forth on it. then i thought, he might as well go away and get changed when he gets too embarrassed at breakfast, plus we get the trad jeans moment. also in this draft mordelia is fiestier. EVEN fiestier)

“You should – tell him that,” I say when I can breathe enough to get the words out. “Please.”

“All right,” Mordelia says. She hops off the bed, like she’s going to do it now, and heads for the door.

“I didn’t mean it,” I shout after her (I don’t want Baz to murder his sister in front of me), but it’s too late. She’s already yanked the door open and Baz is actually there, standing outside. He’s dressed for tennis, I think, even though the court is being used. White shirt and shorts.

He steps back, confused. He must have been about to knock.

“Mordelia. What are you doing in Snow’s room?”

“Mum sent us to get the Chosen One for breakfast.”

It’s the first I’ve heard of it, but I’m definitely excited to try breakfast in this house. It must go on for hours. “I should probably get up then.”

Chapter 3 -

(This is the real deleted scene. It’s an alternate version of the scene between Baz and Simon after they finish talking to Fiona. i’m pretty sure it comes after this exchange, or maybe a slightly different version of essentially this exchange:

“All magicians like me,” I say, because it’s true. My magic means that I’ve never had to try to make friends at Watford. “You’re basically the only one who doesn’t.”

Baz huffs. “Well. None of the others have to live with you.”

I deleted what you’re about to read because although Simon getting upset is good for showing he loves Baz, it’s the wrong mood. so instead simon is aggressively good-humoured about it and baz is like - argh, i love him. you can see i kept some of this in the version as written with simon reflecting on where baz will live after watford in the privacy of his own head before he coincidentally finds out the answer on a shopping trip.)

That pisses me off, even though it’s not exactly a surprise that he thinks this. I know I’m a terrible roommate, much worse than Baz. Objectively. (He doesn’t try and kill me when I’m in my room so I don’t think I can count it against him). I leave my stuff around and I snore (apparently) and I leave the window open even though I know Baz gets cold easily.

“I suppose you must be looking forward to eighth year being over,” I say as he hits the bottom of the staircase. “You’ll finally be rid of me.”

Baz stops and turns back towards me. I’m still a few stairs away from the bottom, which means I’m taller than him but it’s still like Baz is looking down on me.

“Simon,” he says, like I really am exceptionally thick. “We’re getting married.”

“Yeah,” I say. “But not really. It’s not like you have to live with me, if you don’t want to.”

Chapter 4 -

(A few extra lines here - although you can also tell from the tense-choice that this was literally going to be the end of the ‘simon snow hung the moon’ scene - then i shifted it into the next section and shoved it into a flashback, which is a good trick for when you really love a piece of dialogue but it’s going to require you to write more than you want to to get to it/when it ends the scene at the wrong point)

“I’ve got a theory that your family uses insults to disguise affection.”

“That’s because you’re an idiot.”

“It’s all right, Baz,” I say. “I know that means I’m amazing and you can’t wait to be my husband.”

“I can wait,” Baz says. “It’s only eight hours.”

---

that’s all i’ve got for ‘hang the moon’. sorry.

---

The sky isn’t black anymore

(fuck knows what baz is talking about in this snippet - WHAT IS THE TRUTH?? i don’t know. i think it’s from the stripping scene. but it might not be. i almost put something like this back in, but in the end, i couldn’t be bothered.)

It’s the truth. Living with Simon for seven years has required an extraordinary amount of willpower on my behalf. And this week has been a kind of blissful torture. Since the day my father told me the Old Families were looking to marry one of our own the Mage’s Heir, I’ve been in agony.

It had to be me, that was obvious. And then he arrived, in that suit – I’ve never seen Simon in a suit before, one that was made for him

I can only hope it’s been even half as bad for him; I know it wasn’t. He didn’t even know he fancied me, he didn’t even know he was gay. But this seems to be torturing

---

OK, here we go. time to try and write this scene.

I squeeze some into his hand.

“Start with your fingers – or, actually, one finger. Work up to three.”

“You’ve never done this before, have you?” Simon asks as I slide down the bed and end up on my stomach. I can’t work out if he sounds jealous. Or if I’d even want him to be. (He doesn’t have to be jealous. There’s never been anyone else. There could never be.)

“Not with anyone else.”

“Right,” Simon says. (He doesn’t question that statement, thank magic – I’m not feeling so honest I want to tell him about my masturbation habits.) “But you know you have to be on your front.”

“It’s easier. Apparently.”

“Yeah, but it means I can’t look at you,” Simon says. “Which you know I want to do.”

That’s true – he has been unerringly consistent on that point.

I turn over onto my back and Simon rewards me by pushing his tongue into my mouth. One of his hands is wet with lubricant and he’s holding it above me

(and again) (i like the phrase ‘without sounding like a complete pillock’ - classic british 90s slang. might bring it back later in something else)

“I’ll let you know when it’s enough. Then––”

I can’t work out how to say, then slick your cock up and shove it into me – vigorously – without sounding like a complete pillock. So instead I just do what I should have done earlier, what I haven’t been doing or even thinking about, because I didn’t want to frighten him with how much I wanted it. I slide my lubed hand down his cock, all the way to the base, before drawing it back up.

It should just have been a demonstration. One quick stroke, but Simon closes his hand around mine before I can let go – and I don’t want to let go. So I don’

(and again)

“Fingers first,” I tell him. My voice is shaking again, even though he isn’t touching me. He should be touching me.

I take his hand and draw it down my body as I roll onto my stomach. He lets me do it. I feel his slick fingers start to trace a line down the cleft of my arse. Fuck, this is happening.

Is it? He still isn’t quite there.

“Start with one,” I prompt.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Simon says.

“You won’t.”

I hear a soft snort from above me.

“All right,” I concede. “I’ll tell you if you hurt me.”

(and we’re done with that! this next bit is from slightly later in the sex scene. this is where baz has just come but is still getting off on simon’s magic. at this point i thought i was going to teleport baz out to the pond with simon, so he needed his wand with him so he could get back in. i went back and added loads of ‘where is baz’s wand’ into the narrative to get us to this point - and then i was just like, this is too unrealistic, and it’s also more dramatic if baz doesn’t go, so all of that was wasted)

I’m running one of my hands over his back and feeling for my wand in the other. I don’t know what I think I’m going to do with it. I don’t know any spells about gay sex (there aren’t in my library), but there’s much magic here it feels a waste not to cast something. Something showy. Something Simon will like. Something––

that’s all i saved. although i definitely wrote a bit for simon at the end where he says something like ‘If we see your dad, I’m not waiting. Just run’. which i thought was funny - but again, wrong mood. so you just get a glance towards it in baz’s POV about simon being wrapped in the blanket.

the fic was also going to end with ‘on love’s light wings’, although i never wrote it. i don’t know how obvious that is now i told you my trick about putting stuff you like but don’t want to lose into flashbacks. like baz, i love the image of baz carrying simon up to the window, and another major spell that only works if you’re really in love. i would have tried to bring it back thematically by having simon grumble about how he could have cast it and carried baz, if he’d had his wand.... or something like ‘give me a year, i can cast that’. or even just having baz think it was ok to tell simon he loved him - but i didn’t think that was giving us anything new i hadn’t already told you. so - it gets cut.

is ‘let’s go back to bed’ a weak final line? i think it sort of is, because it’s just about leaving a room, which was my go-to ending for a long time. but i thought it worked because the whole fic is about sex and being in bed, and it starts with baz being in bed. anyway - once i wrote it, i wrote a few more lines for simon ...... and then deleted them, because ‘let’s go back to bed’ felt like the ending.

#my fic #my deleted scenes #my content

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kanene-yaaay · 5 years ago

Text

'How was I suppose to know?! You were my first case!’

Author’s note:

So, once upon a time there was a @yussuna, who gives the idea of a fanfic/drawing challengue to a crazy writer called Kanene.

Since them thing went down a downhill.

And then this story born! Yaaaaaaaaay!!!

Okay xDD. But, seriously, this is one of the works I am most proud for, and I really, really would appreciate if you give this a shot. It is very crazy and random, I have to admit, but it has a golden heart.

XDDD

Warnings, fun facts, random things and stuff:

* This is a totally original story! Who would knew I still knowing how to write it! :D

* This is a SFW oneshot. ^w^)b

* I need to warning for blood (kind of?), cutting and use of electricity as weapon. Nothing very detailed, though.

* Sorry for any spelling, pontuation and grammar mistakes! Any and every advice is very very welcome! Please give me your opinion! \(-w-)/

* Something around 4.000 words.

* Portuguese version (Brazilian’s one) coming soon (Provavelmente vai ser só de noite pq eu preciso sair agora, enton, desculpaa!)! Thankys for reading, my lollipops! Have a incredible week! Eat cucumbers and hug an a guardian angel!

[ ~*~]

“You need to stop staring me while I sleep, it’s terrifying.”

“Correction: Guard. And request denied. My system has been updated to not open a slightest infinitesimal loophole possible for you to escape.”

“Urg. You guys, ‘perfect’ guards, are SO exaggerated. - The freckled started to walk in slow steps to the kitchen, tossing his shirt to the couch, being followed by the dark as chocolate skinned, who frowned his face to the neglect with the garment lying faint in the furniture, his impeccable posture almost undoing in disbelief as heard the other’s words.

“Pardon me, exaggerated?!”

Like a movie, they both saw the memories going by as a bittersweet trailer in their own minds: The guard enjoying the calm morning silence and the sweet aroma from the first batch of delicacies being deliciously baked in the nearest bakery in the exact sun rise, receiving greetings even from the singing birds. He felt absolutely charged. Calmly opened his eyes, submerging himself in his desire to hum as he blinked a few times, his glare being totally captured for a light movement on the window. His pupils made soft metallic sound as they readjusted to better focus in the scene before him.

Which, for some reason, happened to be the fugitive blatantly falling out from the same, without a single hint of balance or sense of self-preservation as he lifted from the ground and started to fastly run through the yard which surrounded the house, the dolphin patterned pajamas shining with the dirt spots acquired from the garden.

Mathias almost felt moved, even impressed, by the boldness, a feeling that deprived him from his actions for a brief pieces of moments.

Before leaving in a methodical and unbridled career after him.

“I was just practicing my morning run. I need to keep me alive until at least the next decade, preferably.”

“ You clearly was running away.”

“You have no evidence, and I just speak in presence of my lawyer.” Opened his cupboard (his back staring the dark skinned and being a loyal confident for the police officer, who imitated him with gaudy gestures and grimaces) and placed the pan with water on the oven, his eyes meeting the other’s, who already was in his perfect position with erect back and impassive face, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as a slightly signal of embarrassment. “Do you drink pure coffee or with milk?”

“Your devil’s advocate? And I don’t drink coffee, sir.”

“Mathias.” Completed the sentence that had already received its final point with a distracted tune, going towards the blender and filling it with water. Gave an ironic with a drop of amargure, crackle. “I’m not the devil. One of the demons, maybe. From the lowest class. The feathers from a fallen angel, to be honest.”

“ Pardon me?”

“You already live with me. - Guard. - Yeah, yeah. Guard, live, whatever. The thing is, we have been together for five months and you calling me ‘sir’ make me feel old.”

“It’s not in my protocols to call you by your name, sir.”

“ -all powerful, Mathias.” Once again completed the finished sentence.

The guard narrowed his eyes to the grin from the other.

“I’ll keep completing all and any phrase of yours, then.” He poured the milk powder into the water, taking a full spoon just to put it in his mouth. “Chocolate milk, then?”

“I don’t have need to eat, si-” His sentence was interrupted when he noticed the sparkle in the shirtless’ look. “Matheus.”

“Mathias.”

“That was what I said, Matheus.”

This time was his round of receiving the annoyed look, sustaining its with a smile that illuminated the room and almost had his own chorus of heavens by the angelical and (false) innocent tune which he possessed.

“You’re pronouncing it wrong.” Had to blink, the smile was too shiny, even to his standards. He licked his teeth, his lips curling as he didn't break the gaze which he expected to be intimidating. “And you know it.”

“I am an, fluent in more than ten languages, android, sir Matheus. I can assure you that I know how to pronounce a name.”

Silence.

Matheu- Mathias let out a defeated sigh, shaking his head.

“You still haven't answered my question.” Started to mix the powdered coffee in the boiled water, the smell immediately spreading throughout the kitchen and the Perfect Police Officer code 128√e980 controlled his impulse to close his eyes to appreciate it deeply. “And don’t try to sell me this bullshit of ‘I’m an android and I don’t eat and nhenhenhe.’ I’ve already seen you stealing my gingerbreads in the middle of the dawn.” Still mixing the coffee as his had turned 270º degreedes to stare the the android who keep him under surveillance. - So? Chocolate Milk? Tea? Coffee?

The other thanked for his shade of skin that made difficult the perception of how much heated his facial system was; opened his mouth some centímeters, being almost possible to see the synapse powdery working in order to seek an answer on the same level of the half truth and half sincerity teasing tune.

He didn’t find it.

“Chocolate milk.” Quiet murmur, deviated his gaze from the face which turned again to the activity being made, calmly humming.

It took some minutes drowned in silence while breakfast was being served. The police officer decided to help set the table, partly for a fact question of moral and empathy and the other part, more true, being the one which preferred ignore the dance steps, stuffed for the music that now freely flied from his lips, that Mathias risked, almost dropping plenty of times all the drinks on the floor for trusting on an equilibrium which he did not have when it came to floating.

Humans are so weird.

“Uhh. We’re out if breads… You will have to buy more.”

The law enforcement officer blinked once, twice and more three times in disbelief before facing the other.

“Excuse me? Whose house is it?”

“Mine, but I can’t go out, remember? I’m in home prison.” Took a big sip of the not strained coffee.

“Misconception. You can move up to 100 meters from your home in order to perform activities to fulfill basic needs, as supermarketing.”

“Oh, now I see. Do you mean that when I wanted to do my morning run to keep myself healthy and alive this rule never was mentioned, but now when it affects you, suddenly I can have rights and go roaming around?”

“Misconception. You are modificating my words in order to make me accomplish what you want.”

“Rude.”

“The bakery is next to your house.”

Mathias loudly took another sip of coffee, launching to the lively dark eyes an incisive condemnatory look. Few hair strands falling down his face.

“I am not paid for that.” The bright smile one go up, without any smile on lips, which twitched in an annoyed pout, and went grumbling to the prisoner's room to get his wallet, because he didn’t really had a payment.

“Thank you, dear. ~”

Per protocols androids didn’t swore, cursed and neither pronounce threats to any human, in life or not, regardless ofthe situation.

But that didn’t mean that they didn’t thought about it.

[~*~]

Mathias began to receive calls from the gang. He didn’t really gave much details about them, however he always researched a shade of pale skin more and more stronger with each of them. Sometimes the shade took too long to leave. All the numbers were from prepaid cell phones and their tracking always led to a dead end, no surprises from the biggest gang of the perimeter. They got people highly trained and infiltrated in any place. His guard work slowly and yet suddenly, metamorphosed in a protection work, which for some reason managed to calm both.

The robot who never had a name inhaled, observing his own breath being dissipated by the thick and cold drops, which plummeted from the sky in the shape of a majestic storm. It was night. A night without moon and with the only illumination stemming from light poles, automobiles headlights and his night vision. He had administered a dose of sleeping pill in Mathias’ juice, since the sleepless nights started to research a concern and definitely not healthy number. He already had studied each one of the contradictions from the product so as the long hair’s medical record, until know the right amount to use and be sure that it wouldn’t hurt him.

For this he found himself comfortable to enjoy at least for a second the sensation of freedom which he felt for being in the middle of this phenomenon. Closed his eyes and swirled in the same spot a few times, feeling with pleasure the freezing sensation took over his systems together with the wet grass aroma. The world was silent, as if even the nature shut up for a instante to appreciate its beauty.

It was… contagious, it was liberating. In the middle of the storm no one guard him, no protocols holded him, nobody weirdly stared him when he used the verb ‘feel’ and didn’t ignored him as soon they no longer needed his services.

There he was, was…

“NO!!!”

No?

Opened his eyes and three bangs, as little explosions one after another, became present. Few milliseconds after he felt himself fell, a second scream spreading through the air, cutting the calm and fullness he had been in.

Gasping. He was gasping. Weird feeling. Chest tightness. His pupils quickly focused in the form before him.

It had the green and blue colors mixed in small stripes through all his shape. It was bright. Bright enough at the point to completeky extinguish the darkness in the garden at night without satellites or stars. It was-

“MATHIAS??!”

Yes, with his long strands hair bouncing around his face, showing little fins which he had in place of ears; his pajamas hitting and vibrating strongly over his, literally, gleaming skin, whose shine seemed to spread even more with the rain that covered, yet no longer hit, them. He floated, as he always did when was distracted, however this time he seemed to have an established goal, his hand extended in an unknown energy field, apparently of protection, since in it contained two bullet projectiles, while his other hands was pressed in his shoulder which was-

“Shot! You’ve been hit!” Automatically the android connected himself in his Data Network, taking all the possibles and necessaries for the situation. His body impulsed itself, getting up and moving closer to the other, taking off his shirt and tearing it up to make a tourniquet. His gestures were quick and precise, even though his legs shook for a moment when heard the pain interjection, said in the middle of gritted teeths, from his partner. “How?” His glare was suddenly drawn to the three beings who were in attack positions, guns in hand and shining in their chests…

“Distinctives. They got hell of agents infiltrated in the police.” He wanted to tell that his had a surprised tune, or even that he successfully attempted to hide the astonishment in his voice, but that would be a lie. Actually, this was one of his first theories he had when was arrested and, mainly, leaded to home prision. It was for this reason which in the first month he had been so wary and ignorant with the police android.

And now he got a shot for him. He, who would say?

He was sweating, damn, guns of that level din’t even caused a big amount of damage, however they hurted as if the bullet shards was tap dancing and perforating all of his nerves.

“Can’t you attack them?”

“What?!” His eyes widened, for a instant the pain on his shoulder being a little more light that the unbelieving. “I… Look, this shield is the maximum that I can do at the moment!” Talking hurt. Kneeded down and looked away, suddenly ashamed for his actual condition. “My energy is not physiologically capable to convert itself in any offensive device. Sorry, but you’re going to have to deal with the rest.”

The android’s hands shook, even though his expression remained stoic when nodded. He stared the three forms, who continued shooting bullet after bullet in synchrony. Flexed his arm and relaxed skillfully, as if he was stretching a whip, nevertheless, what actually came of his palm was copper wires, which quickly began to sizzle and snap as electric charge ran all his length. He approached to the shield protecting them, yet couldn’t see the police officers’ face.

Maybe it was for the best.

ERROR. ERROR. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED. ERROR. ERROR. RETREAD IMMEDIATELY, REPEAT: RETREAD IMMEDIATELY. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED.

He blinked, and then knew about all the effect of electricity on a human being. He knew about the electric chairs, the tortures from Medieval Era World War and nowadays, knew about the electroconvulsive therapies and the perfect voltage to incapacitate an adult human of avarage height and weight.

ERROR. ERROR. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED. ERROR. ERROR. RETREAD IMMEDIATELY, REPEAT: RETREAD IMMEDIATELY. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED.

He reached out his hand. Androids weren’t built to hurt humans. They were prohibited to do that. Each movement made feel like there was fire in his metal connections, the ‘error’ warnings beating and pulsing in each one of his systems as a series of spam, or that future appointment you would not want to be reminded right now.

He remembered the scream of pain, the sensation of freedom, the rain, the weird feeling in his chest and his work, his first case and in what it had been metamorphosed:

ERROR. ERROR. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED. ERROR. ERROR. RETREAD IMMEDIATELY, REPEAT: RETREAD IMMEDIATELY. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED.

Protect Mathias.

“Undo the barrier.” If it was on the right voltage there wouldn't be much damage. “On three, tow, one…”

ERROR. ERROR. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED. ERROR. ERROR. RETREAD IMMEDIATELY, REPEAT: RETREAD IMMEDIATELY. BASE PROTOCOL BEING VIOLATED.

“NOW!”

A hole opened itself on the shield, allowing the three conductors wires to unfold themselves and grabbed in each of the police officer’s ankles, electricity discharges flowing through his body and suffering interferences by the rain.

His head throbbing as if the discharges had being on him, which makes sense, since something needed to be the source to charge his attack. Mathias passed, weak small steps, him, analyzing the bodies on the ground.

“Wow. You hit them all at once, and still got to see that they were androids. Impressive.” The one with freckles, not that this was noticeable in the sightly darkness which returned to ravage the place when his gleam amenized, turned out, his smile in a mingle of pain and congratulations. Their gaze met and he realized in the same second:

He didn’t knew.

The robotic voice screaming the protocol in his head shutted up. His eyes were moist, his mind throbbing, shrivers of pain running up his spine and his hands trembled.

‘It must be due to the rain.’, said to himself.

“Hey, we need to go, okay?” The worried face entered in his vision field, his hand went to his not-in-his-so-perfect-pose, shoulder, and he nodded in response.

They came in the house right to the bathroom and with a tweezer the one with technologic systems removed the bullet, wrapping the wound in gauze and pronouncing a few enchantments, offered by Mathias, on the said. The agent got up and moved toward the sink, washing his hands.

“We will need to leave as soon as possible.” He pulled out a pocket knife and unsheathed the blade, observing his reflex with a inexpressive face.

“Sure. I will start to pack the most importMY GOD WHY ARE YOU CUTTING YOUR FACE?”

The police, maybe no longer, officer raised his hand, preventing the other to approached even a single small centimeter. The only eye which was seeing properly, since the cut had been just above his left eyebrow and the liquid spreaded in a intense flow through a great part of half of his face, focused in the opened cut as he stirred with the, previously sterilized, tweezer in it. Mathias felt an unpleasant goose bump travel through his body, making his bright color became in a more opaque shade, didn’t deviating the glare only for pure concern.

“Tracking chip. We all have it in case of any emergency. And don’t worry, my nervous system is different from yours. Quick, pack our things.”

Sure that ‘our’ wasn’t just metaphorically. Mathias grabbed two bags and put the basic first: food, first aid apparatus, a pair of shoes to each one, flashlight, prepaid cell phone (like all the great people with important secrets, he got one), towel, raincoats and money to the complete makeover they would do. After that he arranged the superficial which he knew that had its parts of essentially: The book that the agent started one of these days, his pocket videogame, a SD card with important photos and THE teddy bear (whom it belonged? Mystery.) All together he came back to the bathroom, where needed to sew the other’s corrugator supercilii, who was starting to feel a bit dizzy.

They got on the first bus they found. A travel bus, the only main reason for being so crowded. The sat in the back for both precaution and privacy, which seemed a little to much cautelous, since the two kids jumping from side to side (”I TOLD you to not give them chocolate for dinner, John!! Now what do you want me to do, huh??? Look! I just want to see when-”) waking up the cute generic newborn baby with a powerful voice in a cry that filled every inch of the automobile. None conversation would be audible even if screamed.

They dried off and ate a little, the silence, way to talk since Angelly was teaching the parrot from the sleeping man sitting on front seat to repeat the word ‘poop’, always following them.

“What you are?”

“I…” They stared each other a little before Mathias looked, seeking to choose his words. “I was a result of an experiment. I can’t remember if I was a human before all of that or if I was created there, I just know that one day I… existed. And on the others days I realized that I couldn’t take anymore tests; They wanted to see how far my power could go, from where it comes, how it could be recreated, if it could be passed on… I couldn’t stand it, almost exploded. I managed to find an escape and ran away from everything. I can easily be confused with a human when I don’t gleam, as you can see, except for some details.” The freckled lifted a lock of hair, showing the different, exotic ears. The black-skinned listened attentively, leaning against him, both because his energy that was in less than half as the loss of his resources, and feeling Mathias equally relax and snuggle in his side as well. “Yet they can be easily hidden. Anyway, I went out into the world. Never had heard about here and even less knew about how everything worked and… Well, a guy from the gang appeared and said that they were looking for people to fill some vacancies there. He said it was enough to be good with secrets and know when shut my mouth and we would almost be as a family…”

Angelly threatened the bird when it ordered her to wash her mouth with soap, and now the animal kept flying around the ceiling of the vehicle while the child menacingly tried to toss peanuts on its. The tourist guide was praying, probably to the Judgment Day happen in the next few hours.

“And everything was being alright in the beginning. But the things I saw there… It was like I was one of the scientists who tested me long ago and I couldn’t… I surrendered, the cops arrested me and the rest is the story you followed.”

Silence. Mathias was shaking, it could be sensed his whole chest trembling. The ex-police officer adjusted himself so that he could face him.

“I am sorry. Your… entire record seemed so authentic, I would never imagine something like that could happened.”

“Oh. That it’s good. because then you would realize in the exact same time that it was a story from a movie we saw in our first month.”

…

“Excuse me. What?”

“I knew you slept, I mean, recharged during them!! Very rude of you!”

“I didn’t absorbed useless information. What are you talking about?”

“I was joking, guardian angel. I wasn’t a experiment, lol. I am a alien. I’m grounded.” And finally released the laughs that held so much in himself, literally shaking as seeing the unbelieve face from the one who accompanied him, who quickly adjusted his impeccable posture and angrily pushed him, not even noticing the existence of the new nickname.

“You’re a what?”

“An alien. Octopus Specie, I think it is easiest to your database to relate.” Snapped his fingers, his appearance immediately changing for a young adult with long red hairs, freckles, one of the eyes shiny green as half of his stripes and the other blue as the other half. “Distant planet. The humans don’t have an idea about the existence of our galaxy.” The partner didn’t said anything, what give him space to continue explaining himself. “I made some shenanigans in the past so my parents sent me to here as punishment. I can only come back when I learn my lesson.”

“What do you-” Took a deep breath, forbade himself to seek for any logic. “And what is this lesson?”

“I don’t have any idea.” Answered, the guilt in his expression being totally overshadowed by the playfulness in his smile. “I slept in this part of the lecture.”

The android took another breath and deviated his glare, by the way he closed his hand in the seat leaded Mathias ponder if he was imagining that the said object was his face. Gluped.

“So, are you stuck in the Earth until you learn a lesson which you don’t have the single idea what is about?”

“Putting like this seems a bit too exaggerated, but yes.”

“I literally just resumed what you just said and G-a-ah! - Gave up. Leaned in the back of the bus, not even looking bothered with the much his head hit the wall in each irregularity in the trails, which was a lot, that they passed by. He massaged the tip of his nose. ‘Follow orders.’ They said. ‘It is just guard him for he doesn’t run away or has contact with the gang.’ They also said. ‘It won’t be so hard.’ THEY SAID-

In truth, no one in real life had told him that, however it was what always the movies showed, so it must be true.

“Did you really thought that I was a human?” From his tune it was perceptible that he stilled trying to control his laughter, most likely because he noticed that if one more laugh escaped from his lips, his shield would not be enough to prevent the other’s fury, who probably would take his base-protocol and throw in his face. “I always thought it was pretty obvious.”

“Of course I didn’t! How would I even suspect?” Awwww. He was doing the annoyed frustrated pout. Aaaah! Look at this ashamed blush.

“Well, I literally floated? And could rotate my head 270º degrees? And eat strange things?”

“You were my first case! I didn’t had any database about the habits of Homos Sapiens Sapiens, I mean, have you seen the weird traditions they have? There are gestures that in some area is a compliment and in the other is a coursing in the same country! Not to mention the most expensive coffee of the world is made with seeds defecated by a bird! The entire humanity doesn’t make any sense!”

“I know right? I started to float because I read a book and there the character did that! I thought ‘Wow, finally something we have in common!’, I just realized that no one did that when the peoples looked at me weirdly and started to applaud! Here, follow me: if they don’t do that why they say that they do?!” And then lowered down, as he was telling a secret. “I think they do that on purpose.”

The black-skinned nodded wisely, immediately being followed by the other.

“Tsc.” Snorted, irony filling his voice. “And they claim to be the most evolved specie of the planet.

“Cockroaches.”

“Definitely cockroaches.”

“They fits anywhere, don’t die, eat everything…”

“Not cucumber.”

“Cucumber?” Questioned, his line of praise being broken.

“Yes. Toxic components for them. No cucumbers.”

They were like two old ladies in a afternoon tea, gossiping.

“And who would know that aliens are so sarcastics?”

“What? So you’re saying that for me to be an alien I need to be submissive and quiet asking to come back to home or a guy without a slightly sense of compassion and a high technological evolution wanting to kill all living beings on the planet?” He rested his hand dramatically towards his heart, as if the sentence had hitted him there, his partner just rolled his eyes. “Prejudiced.”

“Science fiction works are, literally, the only database I have access about beings from other planets.”

“Rude. You have access to the memories of our past months, don’t you? Use that, guardian angel.”

The android pondered, slightly agreeing before took a battery and putting its in his mouth, absently sucking the electricity.

“What are we going to do now?”

“Well, first of all: mechanic and then… shopping!” Threw his hands up excitedly. “You need some djustes in your appearance to them not recognize us, and I’m not going to survive my fugitive life with just a couple of clothes!”

“Androids don’t go to mechanics, we have…” His protest was promptly ignored by the other.

“We also going to need a place to live, but that we can see that later.” Turned happily to the other, sparkling eyes. “And you need a name, Guardian Angel.”

“A name?”

“Yeah. Everyone has one, you should get one too, right?”

He smiled. Yes, he should.

“I’ll think about it.”

“I’m going to sleep.”

The bus followed through the sand trail, going at a slower speed, however almost finding no holes, letting the only movements to be a calm rocking from the vehicle. It wasn’t raining at that perimeter, just windy strong enough that even the duo away from the window could feel it. They closed their eyes, managing to capture without a lot of effort the sound of nocturnal crickets singing and jumping around. Mathias again leaned against the other, leading both to relaxed.

“You can rest, I get the night shift.”

“Humpf.” Amused snort, taking off his coat and clumsy putting on them in order to cover at least a little of them. “You, guardian angels, are always SO exaggerated.”

“Good night, Matheus.”

‘Night.’ Replied the other, telepathically.

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allthegodstars · 6 years ago

Text

Sapphire Flames Snippets

Little Snippet:

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences occupied a nine-story building on Old Spanish Trail. Its blocky lines, rectangular windows, and orange brick practically screamed that it housed some sort of government agency.

I maneuvered our Honda Element into the parking lot. It used to be our surveillance vehicle, but last year Grandma Frida decided to rebuild it from wheels up. Now the Element sported a new engine, a reinforced suspension, and custom dampers for enhanced shock absorption. The windows were bulletproof, and the new glass had both the safety glazing and a polycarbonate layer on the inside, so if someone did shoot at us, the windows would crack but hold together. And most importantly, the Element was now equipped with B5 level armor, which meant it would stop most handguns and shotgun blasts. It could have been armored enough to withstand a sniper shot; however, Grandma Frida reasoned that our best chance of survival was getting away fast, and armor was heavy, so she stopped at B5 and added a reinforced floor and run-flat tires.

Unfortunately, even Grandma Frida had her limits, and steering was a bit sluggish. I was used to it by now and I aimed for a parking spot in the middle row.

“So, what’s with you and Alessandro Sagredo?” Runa asked.

The steering was sluggish, but the brakes worked perfectly. I jerked forward, and my seat belt slammed me back.

“Nothing.”

“Aha.” Runa pulled on her own seat belt. “That’s why we screeched to a stop halfway into the parking space?”

“My foot slipped.” I gently eased forward and brought the Element to a smooth stop.

Last night, after Bern carried Rutger into the guest bedroom and Runa settled in on inflatable mattress next to him, I went back to my office, rescued Alessandro’s picture from my desk drawer, and brought it upstairs to my bedroom. He looked so carefree, caught in a magic moment somewhere sunny and warm. When I looked at the picture, a disquieting, unpleasant feeling squeezed my chest, not pain exactly, but a kind of discomfort. I stood in my bedroom and wished with everything I had that I was there, in the sun, with a backdrop of green mountains and Alessandro and I were going somewhere. Together.

It was stupid, and childish, and it would never be. I hid it all inside, put the picture on my nightstand, and went to bed.

“So, you’re just going to go with ‘nothing?’” Runa asked.

“That’s right.”

“Your sister said you met during your trials.”

Sistercide was not a word, but it would be after today. “Yes.”

“Yes what? Is there a story behind that?”

No. He didn’t follow me on Instagram, and he didn’t take my breath away during the trials. And he definitely didn’t show up under my window after trying to convince me to go for a drive.

“We met during the trials, and my sisters haven’t stopped trolling me about it for the last three years. There is absolutely nothing between me and Alessandro Sagredo.”

Strictly speaking, there was 5,561 miles between our warehouse and the Sagredo estate near Venice, Italy. A commercial flight with one stop could get me to Venice in thirteen hours.

“Your cheeks are turning pink,” Runa said. “Are you imagining there being nothing between you and Alessandro?”

***

On Rants, Well Deserved Nature Of:

As I’ve pointed out four times now, this entire incident has been recorded by security cameras. The footage will show that Ms. Etterson and I were attacked without provocation and we defended ourselves as is our right under Article 3 paragraph 1 through 4 of the House Protection Act.”

“Is that so?” Sgt. Munoz’s eyebrows crept up a quarter of an inch.

“You have no cause to detain either me or Runa Etterson. We have cooperated, and we have given our statements.”

“Ms. Baylor.” He frowned. “You wouldn’t happen to have an older sister, would you?”

That was just too much. “When Nevada encountered you, she was under a great deal of stress trying to keep us alive and save Houston. She didn’t have a chance to note that every time there was an incident requiring a law enforcement response, you mysteriously appeared on the scene. But I did.”

He watched me, impassive. I kept going.

“You are attached to the House Response Unit of Houston PD, tasked specifically with handling incidents involving Houses. Every member of this unit is assigned a number of families, in which he becomes expert. So, you know perfectly well that I have an older sister and that she is currently out of the country. You know the names of every person in our family, their birth dates, and their magic. You probably know the exact nature of my powers, despite the fact that my records are sealed. You are here because my last name popped up in your system. So please don’t insult my intelligence.”

***

When English Language Is Just Not Enough:

Warning: hilariously odd bad language ahead. Poor Catalina.

Bug served as Rogan’s surveillance specialist. Magically altered, he processed visual information at an astonishing rate. If anybody could find [Redacted], Bug could. He was also fanatically loyal to Rogan.

The moment we involved Bug, Rogan would know every detail of what we asked and why. Then Nevada would know, and, considering the usual colorful way Bug made his reports, there was a strong possibility that she would freak out. Bug found the vast array of curses available to an average English speaker completely inadequate and used every opportunity to add his own, which often amounted to a random collection of expletives that left you befuddled. I could just imagine the way that report would go.

“Hey, so you’ll never believe this dick fart thing: they want me to find [Redacted]. Isn’t that just pork balls? The gnome molester apparently stabbed somebody. Whore dimwit shit brain dungarees!”

***

A Simple Menu:

Since it was my turn to cook breakfast anyway, I headed to the kitchen. Cooking was basically my and Mom’s job. When Nevada lived with us, she was too busy keeping us fed and clothed. Bern and Leon usually made meat, preferably, steak, and they served it charred on top and raw in the middle. Grandma Frida came from the generation when things weren’t cooked unless they were slightly burned, and my younger sister, who was actually a decent cook, when she had to be, couldn’t be trusted to stay in the kitchen for the duration of the cooking process. She’d start something and then end up outside texting to her friends or in the media room laughing at some show, while we raced to save the meal.

I decided on a simple menu. I put two packs of bacon into two baking pans and popped them in the oven, mixed the batter for the blueberry pancakes, and called Nevada while chopping mushrooms for the egg, mushroom, and cheese scramble.

***

Just You Wait:

My cell rang. An unlisted number. Oh good. Ten to one, somebody wanted to sell me super-special medical insurance or inform me that the IRS was about to arrest me unless I dropped everything and bought an armful of gift cards at Wal-Mart.

I answered it. “What is it?”

“You’re tracking me,” Alessandro said.

Runa’s eyes went big.

“I am not tracking you,” I told him. Technically, it wasn’t even a lie.

“You’re having me tracked. I understand that I’m irresistible. It’s a cross I bear. But do try to have some self-control, Catalina. I’m embarrassed for you.”

He… Argh. “As I recall, I never had a problem resisting you.”

“I thought we agreed that you would drop this.”

“I didn’t agree to anything.”

“Catalina, listen to me. This is serious, the people involved are dangerous, and your well-being is important to me.”

Since when? “Why don’t you tell me more about it? Maybe if I fully understand the danger, I’ll stay out of it.”

“No, you won’t. You have no sense.”

“I have all kinds of sense.”

“This is your last warning, Catalina.”

“Or what?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to find out.”

He hung up.

“I have all kinds of sense?” Runa quoted.

“I was too mad to think of a snappy comeback.”

I glared at the phone. Insufferable ass. When I got my hands on him, I would pry his mind open like a tin can. And then I would make him do a little dance, record it, and play it for him on a loop after I drained my magic off. Irresistible. I’ll show you irresistible. Just you wait.

***

A Pithivier:

Steps sounded behind me. I turned. Runa caught up with us. “Matilda said you would be out here. That child is odd.”

More like unsettling, until you got to know her. “She’s an animal mage. They are unique. Did something bad happen?”

“You mean in addition to everything else? No.”

We both watched Shadow sniffing at cracks in the asphalt.

“Whatever is cooking in the kitchen smells amazing. What are we having?”

“Lemon roasted chicken with rosemary baked potatoes, chive butter, kale and brussels sprout salad with tahini maple dressing, and an apple pithivier.”

Runa gave me a long look.

“I cook when I’m stressed out. It sounds more complicated than it is. In reality, it’s mostly season things, dump them in a baking pan, and stick them in the oven.”

“What’s a P.T.V.A.?”

“It’s a French pie-cake made with puff pastry. The traditional version uses rum and almonds, but nobody likes rum, so I make mine with apples.”

***

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mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker · 6 years ago

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Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows Vol 2 #6-7 Thoughts

Previous thoughts here.

Okay I’ve finally caught up to where I left off with RYV in 2017 so these are my thoughts on the X-Men arc.

I have very mixed feeling about this arc depending upon what POV I look at it from.

As a general story unto itself and an instalment in this series it was pretty great.

However in the context of an AU series with a limited shelf-life as is and in a context when Spider-Man had so often been sharing the spotlight (and the Spider-Marriage hadn’t been seen) making what amounted to a standard paint by numbers X-Men story just from the Parker’s POV was very questionable even if I like the X-Men.

Finally from the POV of a guy who likes the X-Men but isn’t hardcore but is very much in love with 90s X-Men (which this version is based upon) my feelings are very mixed.

And that boils down to what I love about the X-Men and that era of the X-Men vs. how Conway apparently feels about them.

But let’s get general perennial opinions out the way. I’ve grown to begrudgingly accept the conceit of this series as a Spider Family book and a book where we are just going to ignore the child endangerment issues at play. But i’ve spoken about that before in my older coverage of issues #1-5. Similarly in those issues and it still holds true for this arc, Stegman is the goddam man when it comes to the artwork.

Whilst there was one panel in which he tried to draw MJ shocked and upset and it came off just goofy, over all the artwork in this arc was stunning and I genuinely said ‘wow’ out loud when I got to the splash page of Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Keeping on the visuals for a moment, I goddam love the costumes chosen for the characters here. Yes even the reimagined looks for Toad, Crucible and Mist Mistress.

Obviously I don’t talk X-Men here much but I adore the 1990s X-Men costumes from the 1992 cartoon, which originated under Jim Lee. And honestly they genuinely are among the most iconic and visually dynamic looks for the characters so it’s not purely personal preference. This is especially resonant for me with Wolverine. Spider-Man is my favourite (American comic book) character and following him are various Spider-Verse characters like MJ, Norman Osborn, Ben Reilly, Mayday, etc.

But outside of those Spider-Verse characters, Wolverine is my absolute fav Marvel character and it’s always annoyed me that Marvel were like embarrassed to put him in his classic Giant-Sized X-Men uniform once Whedon began writing X-Men.

That is THE iconic Wolverine look and in this story Stegman brought it back baby!

Similarly I appreciated that the Magneto of this story both looked and acted like classic Magneto. Not the aweful black and silver shit he was wearing around this time in the comics and I’ve never been fond of him as a good guy member of the X-Men.

Honestly, whilst I get it was well executed character development, Magneto is inherently more interesting as a morally grey antagonist for the X-Men than among their ranks. So much of the core premise of X-Men is built around the fundamental philosophical conflict between Magneto’s beliefs and Xaviers that you lose a not insignificant chunk of the essence of X-Men when you put them on the same side. Not to mention in a superhero story you want strong characters as antagonists and Magneto is arguably the best X-Men villain, scratch that best comic book villain, ever.

Okay now let’s chat story.

I wasn’t pleased with the deaths in this. Banshee might be few people’s fav but Beast was and in both cases their quick shock deaths were unearned and unworthy. Kind of overly dark to be honest with you given the nature of the RYV book and it gave the impression that Conway isn’t fond of either character.

But that sentiment shines through far more poignantly with Jubilee and Cyclops. Whilst Cyclops gets screwed over slightly less badly than he did in the X-Men movies, the same problems occur. He gets undermined in favour of Wolverine and so Logan and Jean can be shipped together. Which is only a different flavour of frustrating if you LIKE the Cyclops/Jean relationship as I do, than when Jean got screwed over so Scott and Emma could hook up. I still despise that.*

But at least this was kind of believable, at least to me. No X-Men expert so maybe their break up was OOC, but the idea that Cyclops and Jean broke up because Jean didn’t have faith in controlling her Godlike powers whilst Cyclops did is an interesting piece of relationship drama. And at least the characters in RYV didn’t get fucked as hard as they did in the 2000s.

Still you can kind of tell Conway isn’t a big fan of Cyclops (understandable he has his haters, I hate 2000s-2010s Cyclops) but you can equally tell he really doesn’t like Jubilee.

Again, not an X-Men expert here but I’m pretty sure Jubilee being a traitor to the X-Men and being disillusioned by Xavier’s methods is immensely OOC for her character.

Now that isn’t that big of a deal because this is an AU at the end of the day. But if you like Jubilee or just know her character then it will probably annoy you. Unfortunately for one reason or another Jubilee in my observations seems to get a lot of hate that Kitty Pryde and X-23 don’t and I do not understand why.

In the cases of both characters I could tell instantly that Conway was setting one of them up to be the traitor and honestly if you are doing an AU book, Cyclops is kind of the more interesting choice although I grant you maybe not in the context of 2010s Cyclops who already murdered Xavier in AvX and has been a douchebag for a long time. But in the context of this story and 1990s X-Men which this story is trading off of, it’s the more interesting choice. I will give it to Conway though for at least bothering to give us 2 suspects. These days most writers wouldn’t even bother with that and just think they were being subtle when they have Jubilee say shit like “Maybe your human friend wouldn’t like you if she knew you were a mutant!”

On some final notes about the X-Men themselves I feel like there was maybe something more interesting you could’ve done with Jean and Wolverine’s child than what we got with Shine. In her personality and powers she could be any one of the army of Summers/Grey children or any given generic mutant. There is no Wolverine in her to be seen.

That’s not me inherently hating her. She’s just more of a missed opportunity. She was adorable unto herself and even moreso in her relationship with Annie and I hope that gets revisited in consequent issues.

My final little note regarding the X-Men themselves was that I didn’t care for Magneto being mind controlled at the end or his over all plan.

Okay, it’s more like I felt his plan was underdeveloped. Because it’s not that it didn’t make sense because it was literally the same plan from X2: X-Men United. But Conway basically expected you to have just known that because of the visuals and results of the plan. And for comic book and comic book movie fans like me, sure I know the shorthand but it’s not good storytelling. Similarly Emma Frost shows up at the end, barely talks but just kind of takes over as the main villain when Magneto had been the guy built up in the story and...he, he’s Magneto dude. That’s like having Puppet Master show up towards the end of a story where Doom’s been the main villain and take over.

Also doesn’t his helmet shield him from psychic control? I mean again it’s an AU and I feel like that wasn’t established until way later about Magneto but still.

I also wanna talk about how this arc more than anything else just blows up the continuity between RYV volume 1 and volume 2.

In RYV vol 1 #1 it was a big deal that the X-Men got wiped out by Regent and the implication was that the universe diverged in the early-mid 1990s.

In this arc though it’s made crystal clear that obviously the X-Men are fine and that in this universe (the dumpster fire clusterfuck that was) Civil War 2006 was avoided.

Which is again an example of Conway subtly saying screw you to stuff he doesn’t like but I don’t mind that because yeah screw Civil War it was hot trash. But it does make RYV volume 1 way more confusing in terms of continuity, especially since literally no other post-Secret Wars ongoing series (including X-Men ’92) seemed to radically alter their universe after the event like RYV did.

Honestly I think the only way to have it make sense is to just say RYV volume 2 is an alternate version of the RYV volume 1 characters and that prior to volume 2 a guy called the Regent showed up, stole some people’s powers then Spider-Man and his family stopped him. He didn’t kill anyone, he didn’t take over the world, he wasn’t trying to kill God Emperor Doom or whatever and the world didn’t know who Spider-Man was by the end of it.

This actually jives way better with what Houser would later establish in her run on RYV that Annie isn’t a daughter Peter and MJ had INSTEAD of Mayday, but in fact the daughter they would’ve had if OMD hadn’t fucked everything up. I guess in the RYV universe though Spider-Man never joined the Avengers and fashion was stuck in the 1990s even in the 2000s.

I’m not complaining I’m just trying to get all this stuff straight.

Okay let’s move onto the Parker family.

I loved the payoff to issue #2 with MJ planning a party and it turning out to be for Peter’s birthday. That was the best scene in the whole story. Normal life drama with supporting characters we know and love. This is the heart of Spider-Man! And it came with adorable scenes like Annie confronting the horror of gluten free desserts and acknowledgments of Aunt May and Aunt Anna’s deaths.

The heart of the story was the stuff related to whether Peter and MJ should make Annie stay at the Xavier school or not and the scenes exploring this were really good.

Spider-Man deal with relatively relatable everyday issues and failing that stuff that s clearly allegorical to said issues. In this case Annie’s powers are allegorical to a kid with a disability, special learning issues, or someone with a particular aptitude for learning that would make a normal school more challenging.

Special props goes to Peter relating to how he struggled in school and not wanting that for Annie. In MJ’s case though she wants to keep her daughter close. This makes sense retroactively when you consider she’s already lost one child and if you pretend RYV vol 1 happened then she spent years keeping Annie close out of fear that she died.

Putting those aside though it could be a commentary upon MJ’s own childhood growing up where she was constantly being uprooted and saw her family and her sister’s family fall apart. For MJ it’s likely very important that the family unit stay close together.

Conway’s writing shines because he organically (albeit not as subtly as he could) has them switch positions creating yet more potential conflict and makes sure Annie has her own view on the matter. She likes the school, she likes Shine but she doesn’t want things to change and justifies this in a childish way by making out a popular kid in her school is a bigger deal than she actually is.

My major point of condemnation though is that I feel way more could’ve been done with the premise (e.g. having MJ and Jean connect over super powered kids) than actually was because so much of the plot is dominated by villains invading the Xavier school for the umpteenth time.

Actually goes into two other problems with the arc. This is an incredibly generic X-Men storyline because obviously it’s from a Spider-Man perspective. Like if an X-Men story tried to present a window into the world of Spider-Man it’d be a typical thing about him making rent, working for Jameson and missing a date or whatever. It’s like default setting X-Men and whilst I like that because I miss those days before X-Men became a clusterfuck, it’s not the most compelling main plot in the world.

And honestly it wraps up too quickly and easily, MJ just decks Emma Frost and the story is done. Annie and Peter don’t get involved enough which is weird because isn’t this a team book? I mean as the story highlights it makes Mj look cool but I don’t like doing that at the expense of the other characters.

Now in fairness that might’ve been set up for the next arc, which I know is about MJ becoming Venom. The last page or two of the arc implies this because it features an overtly villainous Liz Allan.

At first I raised my eyebrow at this. Around that same time Liz had been presented as evil in the 616 books and I thought this might’ve been lame out of nowhere synergy.

But in thinking about it, if this really is a Liz Allan who is recently went through the stuff she dealt with in DeMatteis’ Harry Osborn arc from the 1990s (as is the implication) then Liz would be a darker person, would be more hard hearted to protect her son and she wasn’t the nicest person to the Parkers at that time.

Although issue #4 had MJ refer to Normie as creepy implying the Osborns and Parkers generally aren’t all that close in this universe.

Regardless Liz with the Venom symbiote targeting MJ and having the there be an explicit thematic connection between them via their shared motherhood was a darkly delicious moment.

As many mixed feelings as I have for this arc over all I give it a solid B.

*Hence I personally also loved Emma Frost just being a plain villain and getting decked by MJ because I goddam hate Emma Frost I really do.

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emmaspirate · 7 years ago

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The Birds

A/N: So after a much needed break from writing I’m back. @lenfaz beta’d this chapter for me a super duper long time ago and I’m finally posting. Yay! Thank you for everyone who has stuck around. Hope you enjoy.

Summary: Meet Emma Swan: mother, detective, and angel. She’s just trying to get through her eternal afterlife in one piece. Naturally the universe has other plans for her. When a murder occurs in the divine community, she must enlist the help of angels and demons alike to help crack the case. Enter Killian Jones, a mysterious demon who has every intention of making Emma’s life a living hell. Angel/Demon AU. This has been done before and I’m sure other attempts are better than mine, but I thought I’d give it a shot. There is a depiction of a crime scene at the bottom so read at your own risk!

AO3

Chapter I/Chapter II/Chapter III/Chapter IV/Chapter V/Chapter VI/Chapter VII

Chapter VIII: Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright

“And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death.” - Walt Whitman

Emma didn’t dream that night, which was both a relief, and the first time that had happened since Lily’s murder. She was also pleasantly surprised to find that she was not covered in dirt or blood, nor had she written any off-putting messages on the wall. It was all quite tame really, she simply awoke from the best sleep she’d had in a while in Hook’s arms.

In Hook’s arms.

She hadn’t realized what she was doing when her eyes had first snapped open. It had been an unfamiliar feeling, one she hadn’t experienced since Henry’s father. She’d had sex with plenty of men, of course, but she never stuck around long enough to reap any benefits of that morning-after cuddle.

Apparently her body hadn’t forgotten how to curl up right next to a man’s.

It was almost embarrassing how tightly she was wrapped around him; arm across his stomach, head on his chest. He wasn’t free of guilt either. Hook had remained propped against the headboard, but he’d slumped ever so slightly, and his cheek was resting atop her head. He had an arm holding her tightly against him.

It was all so noxiously cliche that she wanted to gag. He was clearly doing a really great job watching out to make sure she didn’t murder anyone. It was best if he never knew this had happened, if she was far, far away from him when he woke up.

Early morning light was filtering in from the sides of the heavy curtain, and she figured she’d just go downstairs and occupy herself somehow. As she disentangled herself ever so slowly from his arms, she kept trying to distract herself with new ideas as to what she could do. Maybe she’d read a book. Maybe she’d look over some of his art. Maybe she’d see if she could finally perfect her headstand. Maybe she’d find a cure for cancer. She kept trying to distract herself so that she wouldn’t think about the fact that she kind of liked being in his arms. That, at the very least, it was the one spot she felt safe, if only for a second.

Emma did finally manage to free herself, and it was her full intention to just make a swift exit and get out of the room as quickly as possible. Of course, because she was a masochist, she just had to look back.

He looked so small, so unthreatening, lying there in the bed. She had to imagine that having to act big, and scary, and intimidating all day was exhausting. The fact that he was dead to the world, no pun intended, allowed her to study him without interruption. Hook seemed younger when he was asleep, less angry. He had a scar under his eye and she wanted to know how he’d gotten it. She’d always had a knack for knowing when people were lying, but he was trickier. He had more secrets than she knew what to do with, and she found that familiar curiosity creeping up. You know what they say about curiosity…

And then, as she was staring at him for an inappropriately long amount of time, his hand twitched in his sleep. It was subtle, quick, if she didn’t have her ethereal reflexes she would’ve missed it entirely. The little reach that he did in her direction as his eyebrows furrowed in distress and he made a little murmuring sound. When she felt her heart clench up ever so slightly, she knew she was screwed. She knew that she was beginning to care about him. She didn’t want him to be in pain. She didn’t want him to be such a tortured soul. She didn’t want him to feel like he was some horrible creature undeserving of good things. It was the bare minimum of caring, not wanting someone to be hurt basically meant that she was just a good being, but it still meant that she cared.

And Emma had promised herself a long time ago that she wasn’t going to care for anymore people.

So she took one last glance at him, let herself care for one more moment, and then she felt her walls shoot up again.

This time she wouldn’t let her guard down.

Emma avoided him at all costs.

She did her best to make it seem like a coincidence that any time he entered a room, she exited it very quickly. The angel knew she was doing a horrible job at appearing nonchalant, but it was much better than allowing herself to be vulnerable.

If he’d thought her behavior was odd, he didn’t say anything about it. In fact, very few words were exchanged between the two of them the entire morning. Maybe he was feeling unsure about the present situation, but, either way, she wasn’t asking.

That was the problem with the two of them, wasn’t it? She knew him well enough now to know that he was almost as frustratingly stubborn as she was. That meant that it was entirely possible both of them would blatantly ignore the moment they’d had last night at any and all costs.

It shouldn’t bother her that he was seemingly content with letting it all go. She shouldn’t care that he had no qualms about keeping their relationship strictly business, the way she kept telling herself it had been before.

After all, all they’d done was hold hands, and it hadn’t even been in a romantic way. He’d told her about his dead brother, and she’d told him that she may or may not be killing people during psychotic episodes. No big deal. So why was she acting like this?

It probably had something to do with said psychotic episodes. They were probably messing with her hormone levels. She couldn’t care about him, that was utterly ridiculous. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself as she stared very hard out the window of the Range Rover and refused to look at him.

“We’ll be there soon,” Smee informed her.

Emma nodded but didn’t take her eyes off the scenery she was pretending to gaze at. She wasn’t really looking forward to meeting Arthur, nor was she particularly excited about the prospect of walking into his office of demons. Apparently, the building functioned as a government department, but it was really just a cover so that Arthur could conduct his business, or something. She wasn’t really sure, she’d kind of zoned out when Regina had been blabbing about it on the plane.

“Be on your guard, Swan,” Hook muttered as he too pretended to stare out a window.

He’d very childishly chosen to sit in the front seat, and at first she’d told herself that maybe he just liked the front. Then he’d refused to even look at her and she’d realized he was punishing her for avoiding him. So now they were engaged in some sort of reverse staring contest and it was all utterly ridiculous but she wasn’t going to crack first, not when distance was what was best for them. Instead she sat in the backseat and looked out the window. It felt like she was reenacting Driving Miss Daisy, except for the fact that she was an angel and he was a demon and she had no idea who Smee would be in the situation. So it was like some extremely fucked up version of Driving Miss Daisy.

She was, however, momentarily grateful that they were seated in different parts of the car as they pulled up to where Arthur ruled. It meant Hook couldn’t see the horror etched on her face.

It was an old building, probably older than Hook himself. He’d said he’d died in the peasant’s revolt, which had taken place in 1381, thank you Google, so, yeah, the building was old. Old and large and very intimidating. Architecturally, it looked vaguely like the Palace of Westminster, minus Big Ben. The building was, quite frankly, exactly where she’d imagine the Supreme Overlord, or whatever he was calling himself, would conduct business. Set against the grey sky that looked about ready to burst with rain, the whole thing was a site to behold.

They pulled into a small courtyard in front of the building and Emma could see Regina and Will standing a little ways away. Regina looked appropriately pissed and Will was clutching an umbrella looking equal parts skittish and enthusiastic.

“It’s about damn time,” Regina called as Emma opened the door.

The angel stepped out of the car, boots crunching on the white gravel beneath her feet. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Your Majesty,” Emma replied in the most sarcastic tone she could muster. There was something incredibly off-putting about the atmosphere of the building. It probably had something to do with the fact that there were hundreds of demons mulling about.

Suddenly, Hook was at her side, one arm grasping her arm firmly as he guided her towards Regina and Will. She was startled at the sudden proximity between them, but she was too stunned to say anything, instead preferring to stare at his hand like it was alien to her. “Stay close, Swan,” he instructed, eyes forward.

“I doubt you’d give me any other option,” Emma murmured.

Hook shot her a warning look but didn’t say anything, instead turning his attention to Regina. “You ready? I’d prefer to spend as little time here as possible.”

Regina pursued her blood red lips. “For once you and I are in agreement. Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Right,” Hook affirmed as he dropped Emma’s arm and turned to face her. “Stay here.”

The angel started. “What?”

“Stay here until one of us comes back to get you. We’re going to go in and request an audience with Arthur,” Hook explained and then actually turned to leave her.

Emma stepped after him and grabbed his arm, spinning him around so he was facing her again. “If you think I’m just going to stand here twiddling my thumbs you’re insane.”

Now he looked pissed. “I don’t think you’re going to stand here, I know you’re going to stand here. We don’t need you going in and flying off the handle.”

“Did you not just tell me to stay close.”

Hook gave her a condescending smile. “Yes, from the car to Regina you were meant to stay close, and now you’re meant to stay here.”

Emma felt her mouth literally drop open ever so slightly. “I’m not staying out here.” She attempted to move past him towards the entrance of the building but he made a move to block her.

“Go inside I’ll meet you in there,” he called over his shoulder at the two other demons without looking away from Emma.

She met his stare and decided to give him just a moment to explain himself if only because he kept her from murdering anyone last night. “I can’t not be a part of this,” she whispered when Regina and Will were out of earshot.

Hook sighed. “You’re going to be a part of this; you’re going to speak to Arthur. I just want to go in first and assess the situation.”

Emma studied his face, eyes drawn to that scar on his face again and she was suddenly reminded of this morning. “Why?”

For just a second, he dropped the facade he always seemed to present when they were in public. He let her really see him, see that he was nervous about the situation. “I want to know exactly what I’m bringing you into. The last thing we need is you making a scene, and if things do go awry I want to be sure we can handle it.” He paused and took a deep breath, and it was almost comical how simultaneously frustrated and genuine he looked. “I’m trying my damnedest to keep you safe, Swan.”

She just looked at him, letting his words sink in. She realized with a dull ache in her chest and a lump in her throat that she wasn't the only one who was beginning to reluctantly care about someone that they shouldn’t. “I don’t need you to keep me safe,” she murmured.

Hook let out a dry laugh and shook his head. “If it’s all the same, Love, I’d appreciate it if you’d at least let me try.” He leaned forward then, and she could tell the mask was back in place. Giving her as flirtatious of a smile as he could seemingly muster, he said, “It’d be good for my ego.”

She shoved him back softly and rolled her eyes. “Your ego doesn’t need anymore help.”

Hook gave her a real smile, and she decide she quite liked those. “You’ll stay put then?”

Emma shrugged. “Until I decide not to.”

He smiled at her and nodded, turning on his heel and stalking into the building.

Emma’s eyes stayed on him until she couldn’t see him anymore.

It had taken her about two minutes to realize that Hook’s grand plan of leaving her on her own wasn’t a great one.

She was outside, so that gave her an added advantage. It’d be very easy for her to just teleport herself out of there should things start to go awry. It was also light out, albeit overcast, and the fact that she was directly exposed to it meant her powers were stronger.

The thing was, she’d never leave without them, and she’d venture to guess he knew that.

The other, slightly more pressing issue, was that there were a bunch of demons milling about the courtyard. She hadn’t realized it when they’d first arrived, too distracted by her demonic companions, but it was slightly off-putting. She would just wait in the car, but naturally Smee had driven off to god only knows where. He was probably sucking out a soul or something, she wasn’t really sure what demons did in their spare time. So now she was just hanging out all by her lonesome; the only angel in a very large population of demons.

Who were all staring at her.

That is, those who could see her and sense her presence were staring at her. Most of them just looked confused, some of them looked pissed, but no one dared approach her as she shifted back and forth on the balls of her feet waiting for her demons to return.

She didn’t feel him approach her, senses too overwhelmed by everything going on around her. One minute she was standing alone, and the next there was someone beside her.

“Not everyday an angel graces us with its presence.”

Emma’s head whipped around and she faltered ever so slightly. Even as she registered that there was indeed a man standing next to her, she still regarded him with confusion. It was like he’d materialized out of thin air. “Who in the name of god are you?”

The man moved a hand to his chest and made like he’d just been pained. “Bold choice, using that word around all these demons.”

Emma rolled her eyes, not in the mood. “Yeah, well, some would just call it stupidity.”

The demon chuckled lowly. “And what, pray tell, is a stupid, beautiful creature such as yourself doing in a place like this?”

Emma stepped back a ways, partly because he was creeping her out, but mostly so that she could get a better look at him. The man was a bit older, he’d probably been in his mid-fifties when he’d died. He was a short, skinny man and Emma sensed that if she tried to shove him over, he’d go down easily. He had thin lips and beady black eyes, and his chestnut hair skimmed his shoulders. There was something else too, something deceptively dark in the way he held himself. He was giving off a strong demonic aura, but it was more than that. She felt like she was standing next to a black hole, and she found the pull both intimidating and intoxicating. Then suddenly, not by her own accord, she blurted, “I’m waiting to meet with Arthur,” and she literally had no idea why she’d just told him that.

The demon nodded as though it were the answer he’d been expecting. “And what do you need from the Supreme Overlord.” He asked, and just a hint of amusement leaked into his voice when he used Arthur’s title.

She found it took every ounce of resolve she had not to give him the answer to his question. For whatever reason, Emma found that she really, really wanted to offer it up, and she had no idea why. He didn’t appear to be using any sort of dark magic on her, unless he was just so good she couldn’t even tell. “Why would I tell you that?” Emma asked, and the suspicion in her voice was as plain as day.

He smiled at her as though their conversation was bringing him immense joy. “Fair point.” The demon turned thoughtful for a moment, eyes scanning the courtyard and building in front of them. He twirled a black cane Emma hadn’t realized he was holding around in his hand. “I can get you council with him, if that’s what you’d like.”

Emma crossed her arms over her chest, warning bells going off in her head. She really should wait for the group, she knew that, but it would make things significantly easier if she could just cut through the bureaucracy and get right to the point. She didn’t trust the man next to her in any sense of the word, but she could handle herself, of that she was sure. “Why would you do that?”

“Oh, I don’t do anything out of the kindness of my heart, you’ll have to give me something.”

Emma turned away then. “Uninterested. Keep it moving, Buddy.”

The demon chuckled. “I assure you, it’s nothing large. I just have one question.” The man paused then, and his expression suddenly turned curious. “What’s your name, Dearie?”

Emma started, unprepared for the seemingly out of the blue question. It felt innocent enough; there wasn’t much he could do with just her name. At least, she wasn’t aware of some weird demon hex thing, but with her luck one probably existed. Nevertheless she said, “Swan. My name is Emma Swan.”

He smiled, eyes fluttering closed for a brief moment. “Emma. What a lovely name.” Probably sensing her discomfort, he quickly tacked on, “My name is Robert Gold.”

Emma gave him a tight smile in return. “Nice to meet you.”

Gold, that was what she decided to refer to him as because Robert felt too casual, picked a non-existent piece of lint off his jacket. “Believe me, the pleasure is all mine.” Gold flexed his hand atop his cane. “And I am a man of my word.” He raised the cane and gestured towards a group of men making their way across the grass. In the middle of the pack was a very distinguished looking gentleman in a suit and everyone else made sure to give him a wide berth of space. “That’s Arthur. Approach him, tell him who you are, and he’ll meet with you.”

Emma raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Seriously?”

Gold looked at her like he wanted to slap her upside the head. “Seriously. You better get going, he’s a very busy man.”

Emma stared at the demon in front of her, the whole exchange having been very bizarre. She had no idea why he’d chosen to help her, it certainly couldn’t have been out of the kindness of his heart, but she decided to let it go. Maybe demons weren’t the bad guys, at least, maybe not all of them were. “Thank you for helping me.” Emma nodded and turned to walk away, not expecting him to say anything in return.

Of course, all of Emma’s expectations had been subverted ever since this case had begun. “It was my pleasure, Ms. Swan.” Then, when Emma looked back to face him, he gave her a smile that made her blood run cold. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other in the future.”

She was going to say something in reply, but suddenly there was an itch in her back as her wings started to unfurl. Emma had to put all her energy into keeping them in place, wanting nothing less then to cause a scene. She wasn’t entirely sure what in his words had elicited that response; the conversation had been off-putting, but she hadn’t really felt unsafe. Not up until that moment.

By the time she calmed herself down, Gold had disappeared into the shadows.

Emma took a moment to stare at the spot he’d just been standing in, before she reminded herself that she didn’t have much time. Shaking the experience off and swallowing the bile rising in the back of her throat, she quickly turned on her heel and moved towards Arthur. He was moving very quickly, his gaze looking down at some papers he was clutching. He had on a navy blue suit that, if she was being honest with herself, looked quite good on him. He was flanked on all sides by an armed guard consisting of several beefy looking men that could probably kill her without batting an eye. He certainly had a regal air about him, perhaps more so than Regina, and she was almost certain that there was some sort of protocol that one was to follow when approaching him.

Naturally she just flounced up to him and stood in his path.

He didn’t notice her there, or he figured she’d move, so he just barreled right into her. His arms quickly shot out to steady himself, and he grabbed onto her forearm just a little too tightly. His guards were already in motion, raising their weapons so that they were all aimed at her. When Arthur finally looked up, Emma was unprepared for the range of responses her presence was eliciting.

There was the obvious surprise, and slight indignation, at the idea that she had nearly knocked him over without a care in the world. His expression quickly shifted into one of curiosity as he took in her defiant form, an angel in Satan’s court. There was something else there too, something that confused her to know end. He looked at her with some sort of recognition, as though he knew who she was. If he was tied to the whole Zelena business, there was a chance that he did, but it was more than that. He looked at her in an almost fond manner, as though he was happy to see her.

Then, suddenly, his expression shifted into one of cool indifference. He was hiding his emotions. “Can I help you, Bird?” His tone was ridiculously polite, and she suspected that was simply a habit.

Emma gave him a quick once-over to let him know that she wasn’t intimidated. “We need to talk.”

Arthur gave her a forced laugh, and the rest of the men around him joined in boisterously. “Forgive me for being impolite, but I’m a very busy man, and I don’t even know who you are. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Arthur made a move to get around her.

Emma mirrored his actions, blocking his way. She gave him a tight smile. “My name is Emma Swan, I’m with the Boston Police Department. Several murders have taken place in and around the area and some of the victims include members of the divine community.” She paused and gave herself a mental pat on the back; her “police voice” had really gotten better. “We just want to see what you know.”

“And why would you assume I knew anything, Ms. Swan?”

She’d expected that. “Your friend Zelena Mills was seen poking around one of the victim's apartments." She decided to leave out the fact that she’d thrown Zelena through a wall.

Emma didn’t miss the way Arthur's face soured at the mention of Zelena. “I’d hardly call us friends. You’re with Regina then?”

Emma nodded. “Regina and Killian Jones.” She could imagine that Will would be mad that she hadn’t dropped his name, but she figured it was best to remove him from the situation as best as possible.

Somehow Arthur’s scowl only deepened when she said Killian’s name. She probably shouldn’t be surprised that the two apparently had some beef. “I already told my receptionist to tell Regina that I wasn’t taking appointments today.”

Emma shrugged. “I didn’t know you answered to your receptionist. We wouldn’t want to inconvenience her.” She gave him a large smile, guessing that a man like him wouldn’t want to have his power questioned.

She always was a good guesser.

Never taking his eyes off her, Arthur inclined his head slightly towards one of his guards. “Tell Gwen that I’ll see Regina after all.” He extended an arm towards Emma and she tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow.

Together the angel and the demon walked into the building.

“Would you like something to drink?”

Emma turned to look over her shoulder at Arthur, who was perusing the bar set up in his office. She imagined that most of the spirits on the shelf were older than her. “Rum, please,” she replied, giving him a tight smile.

He pulled up the bottle and poured the amber liquid into a crystal glass. “Sit,” he told her as he passed her the drink.

She took a small sip and then crossed her arms. The drink wasn’t for her. “I’ll stand until they get here.”

Arthur smiled. “I won’t bite, I can assure you. Sit.” His tone was slightly more emphatic now.

Emma stayed where she was. “I’m fine.”

“That wasn’t a request, Ms. Swan.”

Emma cocked her head, and gave him a sneer. “I’m not a demon, I don’t have to listen to you.”

Arthur stared at her for a beat, the smile dropping from his face. He gave her a dark chuckle as he made his way over to his desk. “You’re right; you don’t. I could kill you though, so you’d be wise to do what I tell you to,” he told her as he sat down.

She pondered her options for a moment before she decided that he didn’t seem like the type to make empty threats. Moving at a glacial pace, she made her way over to the two chairs that were facing his. The demon gestured his hand out to one of them, and Emma never broke eye contact as she sat down in the other one. “Happy?” She purred as she crossed her ankles.

“You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you?”

Emma was about to reply with some smart, scathing comment when the door opened. She turned her head so fast she was certain it would’ve given her whiplash had she been human.

She never thought she’d be so happy to see three demons in her entire life. They, on the other hand, looked incredibly confused by her presence. Clearly, no one had told them she’d be here.

“Ms. Swan, I didn’t know you were already here,” Regina said, hesitation in her voice.

Will charged forward and moved towards the open seat next to her, flopping down with a grunt. “Figures ya’d get the party started early.” He winked and shot her a grin, clearly excited for whatever was about to go down.

Emma gave him a nod and a smile before turning her attention to Hook. He hadn’t said anything, which probably wasn’t a great sign, since he always had something to add. She was expecting him to be shooting her some sort of pissed off look, but she quickly realized he was staring daggers at Arthur. He hadn’t mentioned there being any issues between the two of them. “Hook,” Emma called.

He didn’t look at her. “Good to see you again, Mate. Glad to know that kingdom is faring well, given the fact that it’s king has got a few screws loose.” Emma was used to Hook being a bit crass, but this was something else. There was something malicious in his voice.

“Careful, Hook. This might just be the last time you see me.” Arthur spun his drink, bourbon, around in his glass.

“If you could kill me, you’d have done that a long time ago,” Hook challenged, and Emma expected that to be it. She expected to watch him die right then and there. From what she knew, Arthur was the most powerful demon in the world, he clearly had the means to end anyone he wanted to.

For whatever reason, he didn’t kill Hook that day.

When the situation seemed to have diffused slightly, Emma tried to get his attention again. “Hook,” she called and this time he looked at her. She held the rum up and he stared at the glass, unsure of what she wanted. “It’s for you.”

“Me?” He asked, and there was something cute in how unsure he sounded.

“Yes.”

Hook took the glass, a hint of suspicion in his eyes. “Thank you.”

Emma nodded, smiled. He was so untrusting, and probably for good reason. She couldn’t really discourage that without seeming like a hypocrite, no one was more untrusting than her, but she wanted to ease his mind a little. She could sense there was some unsavory history between the two demons, and Hook spoke of Arthur with nothing short of hatred, but she really needed him to keep calm. Quite frankly, as long as he could keep his damn mouth shut she’d consider this entire endeavor a success. “So,” Emma began.

Arthur interrupted her before she could even get into it. “Listen, I seriously doubt I’m going to be of much help to you all. You may be better assisted by interviewing someone else.”

“Nevertheless,” Regina cut in with a grimace masquerading as a grin. “It’s important for us to cross our t’s and dot our i’s, so if you could listen to Emma and answer her questions, it would be easier for all of us.”

Emma was surprised at the assist from Regina, and it seemed to work wonders in shutting Arthur up, so she continued. “As I was going to say, about a week ago an angel, a demon, and a human were all murdered in a Boston area home. Now these murders have been taking place on this day each year for the past several years, but we haven’t received confirmation that past victims have been ethereal in nature.”

Arthur, who had been staring pointedly at his desk while she spoke, looked up. “I can imagine it wouldn’t be hard to figure out.”

Emma bristled, his tone was too accusatory for her liking. “If you aren’t looking, yeah, it can be pretty hard to figure out, and considering the fact that the rest of Boston PD are human, I can imagine they aren’t checking each victim to figure out if they’re an angel or a demon.”

Arthur held up his hands in consent. “Fair enough. Carry on.”

“One of the victims, the demon, was a woman named Lily Page. Hook and I,” Emma gestured at the man at her side, who looked like he was trying very hard to set Arthur on fire with his gaze. “Went to her apartment and ran into Zelena. There was a bit of a confrontation, the details don’t matter much, but we know you two work closely together.”

Arthur stood up then, clearly deciding that he was done listening to her. “Zelena and I don’t work together. She works under me.”

“In more ways then one, isn’t that right, Mate,” Hook added.

Emma decided, as Arthur stared at him with hatred in his eyes, that Hook had a death wish. At this point she wouldn’t even blame Arthur for killing him, she had no idea why he hadn’t made a move to do so yet. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Nevertheless, I don’t know anything about the murder or Lily what’s-her-name. I haven’t seen or heard from Zelena in several months.”

“Wait,” Regina interrupted, her voice coming out in a very shrill manner. “You are sleeping with my sister? I thought that was just an idiotic quip.”

Hook gave her a goading smile. “Oh no, Darling, I never make false accusations. It goes against my code.”

“I doubt that,” Arthur sneered.

Emma was about to cut in, get them all back on track the way she seemingly always was forced to, but she was interrupted by the voices in her head. It was one very specific voice; her brother’s. He was just saying her name over and over again in a somewhat skeptical tone, clearly trying to get her attention.

He was praying.

Prayers didn’t normally work over such long distances, unless of course you were praying to one specific angel. It happened very rarely now that humans were less aware of their presence, and didn’t really credit things like childbirth or rainfall to them anymore. However, she’d told David that if he needed her he could pray to her and she’d get in contact with him, because there was no way she’d pay for an international plan.

No matter what was going on in her life, her family always came first, and so she said, “Can you all excuse me for just a moment.”

Arthur was the only one in the room who didn’t turn to stare at her in disbelief. “No worries, in fact, I think you all should go.”

“Hang on a minute, I just need to make a quick phone call and we can continue this discussion,” Emma protested.

Arthur stood and straightened his suit, tugging it down at the bottom. “No, we can’t. Not unless you arrest me, and I don’t think you have the evidence, nor the power to do so. We’re done here.” With his words, a rush of dark magic flooded the room, suffocating Emma and trapping her where she stood. There was a reason he was Supreme Overlord, or whatever it was, and they all knew it.

He knew it too.

That much was apparent as he glided past all of them with a confidence that only came with knowing that you were untouchable. Then, when he reached the door, he seemed to reconsider. He turned back towards them and Emma was surprised when his gaze went directly to her.

Time felt like it froze as he slinked back towards her, eyes alight with devilish glee. She didn’t even register that his hand was moving towards hers, until his fingers had wrapped themselves around her in a ironclad grip. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hook start towards her, but Regina held up a warning hand. Slowly, so slowly she could count every one of her heartbeats as time moved along, Arthur placed a delicate kiss to the back of her hand.

“Perhaps, Ms. Swan, if you want to know who the true monster is, you should look in the mirror,” he purred. Then he glanced up and gave her a look that meant only one thing.

He knew.

And with one simple look, she was running out the door. She had no idea where she was going, she just knew that she needed to leave. She needed to get as far away as possible. Her chest was far too tight, her lungs ready to burst as she dragged in breath after breath. She vaguely registered that she was moving too far too quickly to simply be running, and that she was probably using light magic to transport herself down the endless hallways. Given that she was surrounded by demons and darkness, that probably wasn’t the best idea, but she also felt she didn’t have a choice. Her head was too foggy to be making any rational choices.

She suddenly became aware of a very dark presence coming up behind her. It was moving quickly, and sticking a little too close for it to not be following her. Spinning on her heel, she let her wings fly out and shifted into an ethereal state, prepared to greet whoever it was with a hell of a lot of rage.

She should’ve known it was him.

Her shadow.

Hook grabbed her arms and shoved her back into a little alcove. “You need to calm down,” he commanded, his tone urgent.

He definitely wasn’t lacking in the bravery department, laying a hand on her when, in her current state, she could probably do some serious damage. “Calm down? He knows, Hook, he knows,” she replied, and her voice did not sound nearly as hysterical as she felt. She vaguely registered thunder shaking the building.

“Do you hear yourself? Arthur doesn’t know.”

The lights surged. “You heard him! You saw him! He knows, there’s no way he doesn’t.”

Hook was still holding her arms. “Arthur is a sadistic prick who’s really good at reading people, but he doesn’t know shit. Trust me, I’ve known him long enough to tell when he’s bluffing. You’re a powerful angel, he was just trying to get under your skin.”

Emma pondered his words and decided that, while she wasn’t satisfied, they made sense. They eased her mind ever so slightly, which, for whatever reason, pissed her off in a new way. She didn’t want it to be his words that calmed the raging storm, but nevertheless, the lights dimmed and the thunder wasn’t quite as loud. “I’m fine,” Emma whispered, sagging ever so slightly.

“You’re fine?”

Emma shot him an aggravated look. It wasn’t fair that he was going to have to bear the brunt of her frustration. Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to make him. After all, he was the only one who knew her secret, and, more importantly, he was right in front of her. “That’s what I said, isn’t it?” She growled and ripped her arms from his grasp. “Do you have a phone?”

Hook looked at her slightly bewildered, but produced one anyways. “Say please,” he demanded.

Emma, unamused, took the device without a word. She punched in her brother’s number and began to tap her foot against the marble floor. It rang twice. “David,” she barked.

She could practically feel her brother cringing on the other end. “You’re not happy. That’s going to make this a hell of a lot harder.”

“Make what a lot harder?”

“I need you to humor me here, Emma.” He was using his big brother tone, the one that was slightly patronizing and carried a bit of a warning.

“David, I need you to cut to the chase here.”

Her brother took a deep breath and then it all came out in a rush. “I reached out to a couple of stations across the country, asking them if they’d ever seen anything similar to what we have. I didn’t expect to hear anything back, but I got a hit. There were several murders over the course of multiple years before they stopped and then started up again in Boston.” Her brother sounded guilty, and she was mildly glad he seemed to recognize he shouldn’t have proceeded without her. “I didn’t want to worry you, so I figured I’d check it out while you were in London, that way when it turned out to be a bust, we wouldn’t have an issue. Except it didn’t turn out to be a bust, and now Mary Margaret, Henry, and I are all out here, and, well, I think you guys should be out here too.”

Emma paused. David sounded nervous, and he wasn’t one to get nervous. “Where’s here?”

There was a beat. “Phoenix.”

The angel felt all the air rush out of her lungs as she started to get worked up again. “You’re in Phoenix?”

“Yes, and Emma…”

Suddenly she couldn’t hear him anymore, her eyes having drifted over to a regal looking portrait hanging a few feet away. Emma hadn’t noticed it before, too distracted by her minor breakdown. She made her way over to it slowly, trying to make sure that she was right, that she did recognize the man in it. He was very handsome; dark skin that was augmented by the heavy blue robes he was wearing, and brown eyes that suggested he knew far more than anyone should.

“Swan?” She heard Hook’s voice call out, but she was already deep inside her own head.

“We need to go, Emma. They’re coming,” the man implored.

“No, no, I have to get to him, I have to-“ She began to pull away, barely recognizing her own voice. She sounded desperate beyond belief.

“We don’t have time. We need to go, we need to go.”

“No!” she screamed, and if she hadn’t recognized her voice before, she surely didn’t now. She sounded dark. She sounded dangerous.

Suddenly, as if not by her own accord, her arm went sweeping out and the man flew backwards into a nearby tree. She felt her resolve harden. He couldn’t stop her.

He was fading quickly, his head bleeding heavily. Still, he reached out to her. “Emma, please, don't do this. Don’t go down this path again. If you do, all our work is lost.”

She stumbled forward, her legs seemingly carrying her towards the painting without her consent. It was the man from that first dream, that first memory. She’d known him and she’d known him well.

She almost smiled when she saw that there was a tiny placard beneath the portrait telling her his name. She would’ve smiled if not for the lump in her throat and the tears in her eyes that prevented her from doing so.

Merlin.

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